Seeing all these 'boring' posts has vexed me somnewhat guys.... Think aout it, your Wlad & you're going against the most dangerous & smart opponent yet, someone relatively quick & powerful and above all smart are you going to throw is all away & leave yourself open? NO. Wlad boxed safe & as you saw Wlad dominated and when he threw the right it connected more oftenthan not; if he had wanted to he could have finished it earlier but in doing so against that foe there was a risk which he didn't take. Give Wlad more credit then you're giving him. It's hard to hold back in there when you know you can finish it this in my mind shows great resolve. He wasn't being lazy but was being smart. Wlad is one of those rare boxers who can follow a strategy to a 'T', trains always and is never out of shpe; never. While his mental preperation and work is 2nd to none. I'm not digging Lewis but the man lacked resolved at time in training and more importantly in the ring, letting his guard down, leaving his chin out and blasting when maybe he shouldn't have. Like Wlad he learnt from his mistakes but Wlad to me as he is now is light years ahead in mental preperation than Lewis - Wlad will never make the mistakes he made in the past and he'll never step into that ring out of shape. I'm positive of this. There's no question Wlad is an exceptional boxing specimen whom I believe will go down in legend before his time is up. Now lets get these other chumps 'dusted'! We have a unfied champ!
If Wlad becomes a legend with that kind of performance . . . I'll ****i'n regret being a boxing fan all these time.:twisted: It's a ****i'n shame no matter how you look at that fight. :yep
No, it shows mental weakness. Wlad will never be anything close to as great as Lewis. Wlad went all over tv shows promoting the fight and himself. More people were watching this fight than any HW fight in years.. thousands of people bought tickets at the legendary MSG, then the recognized best HW in the world, Wlad puts up that kind of safety-first performance? He should have performed like a champion is supposed to against an opponent like Ibragimov. Instead he gave us 12 rounds of safety-first olympic style boxing. He had no trouble landing on Ibragimov. He hurt him when he landed the right hands. He followed up with NOTHING. It's not like Ibragimov was some relentless iron-chinned fighter who was taking Wlad's shots like they were nothing so Wlad had to switch to a safety first plan. Wlad could have had him out of there at any point. He saw that. But he didn't do that. Why? I have said this for a while now and have always believed it 100%. Wlad is very mentally weak and not confident in himself, his stamina, and his chin. He was afraid to engage for 2 reasons: 1) he was afraid of getting countered by a fighter with quicker hands than fighters he has faced in recent years 2) he was afraid if he threw too many right hands and didn't put him out he would start to gas. Wlad will never be a truly great HW because of his weak mentality (which translates to a weak chin and bad stamina, since fighting scared and worrying affects both in a big way). Wlad's performance against Ibragimov made Mayweather's performance against DLH look like Calzaghe's performance against Lacy. You know what I mean. Floyd got a shitload of criticism for fighting safety-first against DLH, but what Wlad did was 100 times worse. At least Mayweather was fighting at a weight 4 classes higher than his prime weight against a fighter who's of a higher class than Ibragimov. Floyd also didn't have the ability to significantly hurt his opponent with one punch. Wlad's performance was embarassing and disappointing. His nuthuggers will never admit it, but it's the truth.
He won convincingly against the no.2 and didn't take risks - no point hanging your chin out for entertainment :good
Ibragimov isn't number 2, his level was obvious before this fight.. but that doesn't matter anyways. There's a difference between hanging your chin out and simply throwing a right hand against your shaky chinned opponent more than once a round. I can't believe Wlad has a single fan.
It pisses me off, that with all the physical advantages Wlad had last night, he didnt push the offense more, and he was so affraid of being hit, can you imagine him fighting Lennox???
I think the complaints are more to do with the fact that this was the big stage set up for Wlad. More media converage than he's had for quite a while, arguably since the pre-Sanders 'glory days'. Widely shown footage of him training like a demon, and his general chiselled appearence. Manny Steward backing his man to the hilt, calling him one of the best HWs ever and enthusing about Wlad's knockout ability. And it ends up as a 12-round snoozer, with Sultan unable to cope with a jab and Wlad deciding to just go with that all the time. That crowd wanted to cheer Wlad to the rafters with a big knockout. Instead it was a jabbing session. Whether you feel it was a good performance or not, surely it's simple to see why some people have gotten so pissed-off about this.
Safe? He didn't throw a single right hand in the first 3 rounds. Hell... He threw what? 10 of them in the entire fight? That's safe alright.
Wlad really showed his lack of versatility in that fight. and if your answer to that is "He didn't need to be versatile because the jab was working for him" Then he really showed his lack of confidence.
I have no problem if a boxer boxes safe. Just don't expect me or most others to ever buy a PPV with him headlining then. When Wlad's trainer last night Manny Steward said before the 12th round, knowing the fight's in the bag, "You have to knock him out!", it's pretty telling.
Wlad is being is being criticized and rightfully so because he had big expectations to fill and he failed miserably. Klit has tremendous ability and talent and he could accomplish so much more with it. Yet he fails to realize his true potential. And instead we get the stinkers like last night. He could have easily scored a mid round KO if he fought with courage and heart. Wladdy has been a disappointment as heavyweight champion.
Thank ****ing god ESB doesn't run dog fighting, we'd have the only ring where the winners were executed more than the losers.
