-Maybe Wlad's hand is still injured. It is possible that he has a chronic injury and that's why he only uses his left hand. -Maybe Ibragimov and Klitschko made an agreement. Iggy obviously knew he was the underdog and that Klitschko was the better fighter (the KO of Ray Austin was evidence of this). Maybe they made an agreement. Ibragimov said "you won't hurt me and I won't be competitive so you win the fight easily, and we both will win a lot of money without getting hurt or sweating so much". Klitschko agreed. It's called corruption. One of this could be true and, yes, I am drunk. Thank you.
Did you ever think that Wlad might be going back. He almost 32 and with some men the reflexes go earlier than with others.
please dont make excuses for wlad. dont give the haters any more fuel. :-( it was a technically dominant win but wlad failed to close the show like a great fighter should. i like many, including yourself feel he is an elite boxer with the potential to be great. he just cant win, he must destroy his opponents. "broken hands" or "slips" are just bs excuses. i believe he will redeem himself next time
Its more likely that he saw Ibrag being a south paw as being something that needed to be handled much more cautiously than a Brock, Byrd, or Austin. Let us not forget that Sanders also being a left hander is probably something Wlad had in his mind in this fight against Ibragimov. And he acted accordingly cautious, even going against Steward's stern instruction.
I am not making excuses, it's only a hypothesis. I do not belief that his hand was injured. I am only writing it because it is a possibility. It is also a possibility that he made an out-of-the-ring agreement with Ibragimov. It is also a possibilty that everything was fine and he sucks.
I also wonder if he did lose some of his brutal power now that he's down to 238. He did look thinner than ever. Maybe he needs to swell back up to the Wlad of old, back in the big bulked up days................ stamina be damned.................LOL
Here comes the excuses, at least Kobe is god and Heavyrighthand are taking it for what it was, a less than stellar performance. Manny would of not let him fight if that was the case, the fight would of been postponed like Vitali's have been for the last 3 years. As far as the out of the ring agreement, Iggy was throwing big punches at Wlad, and if connected, had a chance of flooring him or at the very least sending Wlad into one of his famous panic attacks. If it really was fixed, Iggy could of stayed down from the one right hand Wlad did land on him, nonone including myself would of called foul.
None of this, or anything else mentioned so far is the issue. We don't know if Wvlad had power b/c he REFUSED to throw punches. From round 6 through 12, there were many, many, MANY instances where Sultan was basically a sittiing duck. A couple times he'd thrown a wild lunging hook, missed and was off balance with this chin just sitting there waiting for Wvlad's cocked right. Wvlad refused to throw it. Why??? There's gotta be some explanation. "He was being careful" doesn't even begin to satisfy my wild curiosity at this. I could maybe even argue it would be MORE "careful" to Knock the guy out *earlier* when there are opportunities as clear as this than to simply keep jabbing and let him stand in there a lot longer. Mind boggling.
"A couple times he'd thrown a wild lunging hook, missed and was off balance with this chin just sitting there waiting for Wvlad's cocked right. Wvlad refused to throw it. Why???" You are describing a fighter with fading reflexes. Joe Louis said something the same as he grew older. "I could see the openings but by the time I got ready to throw, they were gone. I knew I was finished." Wlad is 32 and it would not be unusual for his reflexes to be slowing.
I think the problem with this fight was styles. Ibragimov is a southpaw counter puncher. Wlad is an orthodox fighter with some caution. Wlad was content to keep winning rounds, and occasionaly open up. Ibragimov to me was disappointing. When it was clear he needed a knock out to win, he did not go for it. Wlad did not throw many power punches, but those he did throw were very accurate and hard. IMO, Ibragimov did not dare to be great, and Wlad simply took the " w " added another belt, and tallied up his 50th win as a professional.
Interesting, and thanks for the reply. I still can't help but think, though, if he even had the reflexes to pop his jab at openings he ought to have been able to throw that right in at least a few of the instances described. It's not like he would have needed perfect, or even "good" timing. He had like over a full second and a half a few of those times. :twisted:
