Wlad looked better than he ever looked yesterday. He is only getting better with age and with Manny Stewart in his corner, he is going to be the dominant heavy of the next 4 to five years at least! At this point, I think Wlad has to be a clear favorite over any other fighter in the world, and would defeat Sanders, or Purrity in rematches. And would defeat Peter even easier than he did in the first fight and probably stop him. Basically, I am not going to bet against W. Klitschko for anytime in the near future.
I think the only guys who would be competetive vs. Klitschko are Sam Peter, Povetkin and maybe Chagaev and Ibragimov. All the others would be missmatches.
Wlad would win just as many rounds minus the knockdowns, or TKO Peter this time around. He's more confident, more relaxed than ever. The first time they fought, Wlad didn't have the supreme level of confidence he showed last night Wlad is on a different level from a slow, flat footed, wide punching plodder like Sam Peter But Peter won't make it that far. After Maskaev, he has to fight Vitali. If Vitali is 85% of what he used to be, he'll eat Peter alive
Wlad is a better fighter than Peter. However, Peter has 3 things needed to beat Wlad; A lack of fear, a good chin, and good power.
Sam Peter looked MUCH better in the second Toney fight. Much more seasoned and in control of himself. If he keeps improving, then who knows??? There are still question marks regarding Wlad's chin, and Peter has trendous power.
Of course he doesn't have Foreman type of power, but he's probably the most powerful of today's crop of heavyweights. Perhaps Wlad has improved, but I still remember him getting absolutely blitzed by Sanders and then hitting a brick wall versus Brewster. If Sanders can blitz Wlad, then all it takes is one solid shot by Peter and Wlad does a Judah chicken dance.
All of this is true, but it was his conditioning which was clearly better in the second fight. He weighed 249 in the second Toney fight and 257 in their first leading to more activity. It makes sense. Remember, he was also 243 against Klitschko, the lowest he'd been since early in his career. IMO, his chin and conditioning saved him from a knockout in the Wald fight. He did sharpen his punches up a more, especially his jab which was good to see but remember it was against an opponent just lying on the ropes throwing nothing back. Klitschko will not be so accommodating, sticking and moving w/his jab. IMO, klit has shown much more improvement against a wider variety of opponents than Peters :yep, especially in his defense, footwork, and ring generalship. A large part of the problem is that Peter has not been active and we haven't gotten to see if the improvements have continued. A dominant performance against Oleg will sell me. In a rematch, Wlad does an Ali impersonation and systematically breaks Peter down by the 10th.
No he isn't the most powerful of today's crop. Who has he KO'd? Jeremy Williams? Even a stoppage over Maskaev is not impressive as Oleg has been KO'd five times by men such as Corey 'Not Corrie' Sanders. As far as his improvement that everyone keeps talking about remember people James Toney is a shot, overweight 38 year old former middleweight. Right now the man with the best shot of beating Wlad, especially if he crushes Sultan like I think he will, is Ruslan. Ruslan has skill, has a chin, has power, stamina and is relaxed in the ring. If he beats Sultan the only fight I want to see is Klitschko vs Chagaev, Sammy boy can wait his turn.
Sure he does. :-( Sanders throws straight punches from a southpaw stance where Peter hooks practically every shot he throws. Let's put Peter's 2 wins vs. Toney into perspective shall we?! The first one was close and many thought James did enough to win, I disagreed & thought Peter's punches that landed did more damage and he was pressing the action. The second fight was almost entirely all Peter, however concider that Toney got a gift decision in his very next fight against a journeyman that I can't even name. That should show how little Toney had left at that point of his career. Peter did improve but keep in mind the version of Toney that he was fighting.