Salute to Murat Gassiev

Congratulations to Gassiev for making it to the final. Im sure the Russian will watch this all back and start to kick himself for not going all in when a points win was clearly beyond him but like Lomo did with Rigo Uysk and his work rate just caged him up and rather than just go for it he waited and worked and hoped some oppertunities would come for him and they just never did. Sometimes you are just properly outclassed and there is nothing you can do about it.

 

Advice to Gassiev: drop the "Just happy to be here" attitude and use instead "I want to f**k the prom queen" .

 

What was Sanchez doing for him during this camp?

Telling him how awesome he was, i guess.

 

Come on, a naturally gifted and talented guy can't be "done" at 24 years of age after one loss.

 

I said this was a bad style for Gassiev and boy was I right. I knew a guy who comes straight forward with no angles is gunna be tailor made for Murat. Usyk with his angles, activity and quick feet was gunna beat Gassiev.

 

Those type of fans are the worst, the fact is Gassiev probably beats every other CW, and coz of one bad loss he is apparently finished.

 

I don’t think he is naturally talented though, he is very heavy handed, and has an excellent chin. At these high weights those are excellent tools to have, and you ain’t gunna come across to many with Usyk skill.

 

A few things concern me about Gassiev, It worries me to see a fighter not even attempting a jab, even if he has a disadvantage at long range, his lack of head movement and planted feet made it easy for Usyk to nick rounds without having to work too hard for it. His ring IQ was lacking last night and never had a plan B when losing.

He is still young and accomplished a lot for his age, but he still has so much to improve on.

 

Those who say Gassiev did nothing are silly. He did what he could to the best of his abilities, and they are plenty. Just the southpaw stance, the angles, the speed and Usyk's business were too much. Still, up until R6 Gas' sharp body work and occasional head snapping power hand were the most telling blows, he just couldn't build on it due to the lack of experience cutting down a lefty mover, then Usyk tattoed him all over the place.

He'll take the experience at 24 and will be better off at HW like I said before, cause them big fellas ain't dancing around, they'll be in Gas' hard punching range and he has the power, the timing and the stamina to party at 200+. Im pretty sure he can be just as explosive at 225 and probably wasn't that off that weight on fight night. Just all the wrong speed/style/stance in front of him. That's boxing. Or more precisely, that's Usyk, and there's no such a fighter in HW today.

 

Have you ever seen a guy fight like that in an even money fight in front of his home crowd before? Hell, Jeff Horn can't fight a lick, and I though he lost to Pacquiao going away, but definitely rose to the occasion in front of 40,000 screaming Aussies.

I think Gassiev is a very smart guy, but probably too smart for boxing, he just doesn't have the heart.

 

Basically this was Calzaghe - Lacy, but Lacy had stumbled in a few fights before fighting Cazaghe and Joe was a better fighter.

 

Is he really that heavy handed?

He's been in 8 decision fights already. Honestly I was impressed by him against Dorticos, but like all of his opponents, Huck, Lebedev, Wlodarczyk, Dorticos was in his med thirties.

I think I got kind of hyped to be perfectly honest, by seening a thick-legged white guy fight off his back foot for 12 rounds "against" his natural tendancies. It turns out that he is just kind of passive and that was his natural tendency. Now that comes back to Abel Sanchez; if your guy can only fight going backward why don't you come up with a fight plan where that is what he does?

 

He does much better when his opponent comes to him like Dorticos. He times guys really well and plants bombs on them. He got taught a lesson, he will be back better because of it.

 

You did get over hyped by the Dorticos win, to me it wasnt a back foot performance he just didnt walk forward like normal but he was hardly rolling punches on the ropes, slipping shots and popping out the jab. Dorticos fought like a mad man doing the same 1-2 over and over again. All Gassiev had to do was tuck up, absorb the punishment without getting hit too much and pick oppurtunities to get shots off.

 

You are embarrassing.

Please go away.