Steward to Klit after the 11the v Ibragimov - "If you win a decision, it's not good"

People are much too hard on Wladimir Klitschko, including Manny. :-(

Since when is winning a dominant decision an indication of some kind of failure? :huh

 

I thought nothing more of it than Steward simply keeping Klitschko alert about the fight. He was telling him the entire fight to keep doing exactly what he was doing, and that it was perfect. I think that Steward felt that Ibragimov was going to go for broke in those last couple rounds, and wanted Wlad to be completely aware. It would be easy for Wlad to become distracted, or complacent with such an easy match where his opponent wasn't willing to make a fight of it. Immediately after the fight Steward said that he was happy about the win. That Sultan was simply fighting too defensive, leaning down and back, and fighting so small that it made it impossible for Wlad to really attack him without being out of position himself.

Acting as if a boxer winning by landslide decision over an undefeated Champion, in a unification fight is a bad thing... is quite silly. By those standards every fighter in history looks pretty bad.

 

Everyone has off nights.

I applaud him for attempting to unify in the first place.

 

Steward was right, look at all the backlash he has gotten already, the crowd booed him out of the arena, fans are thinking twice about supporting him anymore, when Wlad finally had a big chance to make new fans of the sport, he did the opposite and probably made some fans that were on the fence about boxing, jump over to the UFC side for good.

 

There are some people who are going to hate Wlad no matter what he does. It wouldn't have made any difference how he won, because some people just didn't want him to win! Even after his early KO of Austin, people were critical...

No matter what, some people will always be negative about him! Know anybody like that, Punisher33? :roll:

 

Exactly, Steward seemed more urgent as the fight went on. I too was worried that Sultan would go for broke and that Wlad may be unprepared for it due to how reluctant Ibragimov was up to that point. A trainer is sort of like a Jockey pushing his horse to the finish line. Had Ibragimov actually opened up and fought, he would have been killed. Look at what happened to him at the end of the 11th when he tried to open up for a couple seconds.

 

if u watch the fight again, klit really stepped it up the last 4 or 5 rounds. the problem was he got started way too late. he should have started letting his hands go in the 3rd instead of 8th.

it wasnt an endearing performance but it was a virtual shutout. i am not concerned about klit unless he does the same thing against thompson NEX fight.

i would recommed this fight to anyone with insomnia

 

Right.



Its not really fair to criticize the guy for winning a UD against an undefeated titleholder, but that's just an illustration that the public now holds Wlad to a higher standard than they do any other heavyweight. He is seen as THE man, and after his destructions of guys like Byrd, Brock, and Austin, people expect that kind of show, every time, now.

Not to mention that this long awaited unification fight was supposed to be Wlad's show, where he made a proclamaition to the general public that he was going to resurrect the division...... Sure he did win very decisively, but the public had such high expectations for him, that anything less than a Brock type KO would be seen as a letdown.

Unfair, but that's how they have high expectations of him, these days. He has set a very high precedent for himself by KOing all those fighters, one after another, and now, anything less won't do.

 

stepped it up in the last 4 or 5 rounds ?

No, he, did, not.