Ten yrs ago he could hang with ANYONE in the division and mananged to beat several pretty solid HW contenders. Today, he's going the Owen "what the Heck" Beck route in allowing himself to be steamrolled by any solid contender. So he's going forward with he Andy Ruiz fight, and Ruiz Jr is living up to his nickname, the Destroyer. Should Sergey hang em up, or does he have the tools left to beat a few of these prospects/contenders and get a big fight?:-( IMO, he should be follwing the Shannon Briggs plan of following a name around, maybe Haye, and crushing cans until he gets a 500K fight.:think
What are YOU TALKING ABOUT?????:huh:huh:huh In 2003, Owen Beck was a REAL contender. He won a WBA minor title and was a top 20 contender when he faced off vs Barrett for the eliminator for Vitali, who was just being replaced by Rahman at WBC. He was also robbed of his marquee win vs Ray Austin for a chance to fight for the IBF mandate vs Iggy. Don King KNEW he'd robbed his own fighter, so he gave him a title shot vs his Russian behemoth, Valuev. And thus ended the contender yrs of Owen "What the Heck" Beck.deal:deal
I'm kidding dude, you think I seriously consider Beck a real deal? He lost to Oleg Maskaev by KO and retired. Hadn't won a fight since 2003atsch Also - I'd take Don Kings briefcase over a 20mil HBO deal too:thumbsup
My point was....your sarcasm falls flat here. In 2003, Beck was a REAL DEAL. Power, boxing skills, average chin, and decent handspeed/footwork. Porous defense and living up to his nickname caused him serious beatings. Also, being robbed in a fight that could change a fighters mentality didnt help. Liakovich hasnt had a meaningful win since 06, yet he's fighting on KO loss after KO loss after KO loss to any prospect/contender who will fight him. Like Beck, Sergey has decent tools to work with, but his career has turned eerily similar to that of Becks, in that after suffering a tough loss to Briggs when he was ahead on my card 107-102 going into the fateful 12th rd. I just hate to see a once solid talent being fed to the wolves over and over and over again. If he's just doing it for the $$$, he should follow the Briggs route and fight cans, that is, before he becomes one.:---(
Liakovich is past it, but he still hasn't regressed anywhere near as much as someone like Beck, or Williams. Those guys are both dangerously shot.... This fight will tell us if Liakovich has really slid since the Jennings, and Helenius fights, or if Wilder actually has good power(albeit very crude power) I think if same White Wolf who fought Jennings, and Helenius shows up that Ruiz might be in trouble if the fight gets out of the early rounds. Conditioning is always going to be a weakness for him looking like that, a gritty vet and former titlist like Liakovich may be able to expose him if he's up to it. We'll see... My money is on Ruiz, but I wouldn't be the least bit shocked if he he faded as the fight wore on and lost a close decision.
