Why do people say that Wlad needs to fight Peter to be champ?

true punisher about chag not ko'ing a top-top fighter. but i'd put his power a tad ahead of peter simply because he delivers his shots better. though admittedly despite the poor showing verses mccline, peter showed improvements which i thought i'd never see from him.

he threw a lot of body shots which shows maturity instead of headhunting etc. but still, chagaev has proven one thing over peter. he outboxed, and even stunned valuev who i put higher than mccline since he did hold a championship belt. until peter becomes the real champ, and not the interim, chagaev to me is above peter because of the betls.

also i was wrong about chagaev's draw. i double checked, and it was rob calloway who he drawed with. i never saw that fight but it was a technical draw because of a headbutt which cut up calloway. having not seen that fight i have no idea if calloway stood a chance, but it still seems better than sultan's showing against austin. more a bad luck situation rather than a close fight. and he actaully beat virchis by MD. i got my fights mixed up! oh, and the calloway fight was stopped in the 3rd round. so as i guess i would imagine the fight barely got warmed up before the clash of heads. so at this time chagaev is more formidable that sultan when comparing their draws.

from what i've seen of virchis, he is a very poor man's version of wladimir. very poor version so while chagaev beat him, it took a majority decision win over him to do it. that's another fight i need to watch.

irregardless, wlad is no1. peter has to beat maskaev and in good fashion (not go life and death with him for example), to regain his no2. ring magizine rating in my eyes. :good

 

I have Chagaev at 2 as well, but not by much considering niether Peter nor Chagaev have knocked out top 20 oppenents in there careers. I feel both Peter and Chagaev have alot to prove in the power department, they are very similiar in the sense that have both won close decisions in there last couple fights.

You make good points in saying that Chagaev is the more techniquely skilled of two, which I agree with. I feel they both need more impressive victorys in there resume to even think they can compete with Wlad at this point, time will only tell which one will come out on top.

 

Most of the people who were saying that before have gone eerily quiet about the idea since Peter's last fight.

 

This is one of those cases where you just can't please people. Wlad, in his last five fights has beaten: 1. Peter, who was undefeated, considered the hardest hitter in the division and a potential future champion and expected by most to run him into the ground, 2. Byrd, the IBF beltholder and world's #1-ranked heavyweight at the time, 3. Brock, undefeated and well-regarded in some circles with a solid resume and a legitimate top 10 standing, 4. Austin- admittedly a fairly weak opponent, but the man was his mandatory- if you don't fight your mandatories, you lose your belt, and any possibility of unification is set back even further-, and 5. Brewster- the fact is that Wlad was taking all kinds of flack from detractors for not avenging his losses and dodging the men who had beaten him. If Wlad hadn't fought Brewster, there would still be hordes of critics decrying him for not being a man and facing up to his old conquerors. He does something which should be appeasing thousands of unsatisfied observers, but instead they turn around and rationalize it away.
Fact is, Wlad has fought much better opposition than any other heavyweight beltholder today, and the blame for lack of unification should rest far more on the shoulders of the other beltholders than of him. We have the WBC belt being juggled around, sat on, argued over, and never actually fought for- they have to get done with all this Maskaev/Peter/comebacking-Vitali business before Wlad can even get a say in that picture. Chagaev is out with an illness, and Ibragimov is busy fighting monstrous opponents like a 44-year-old Holyfield. If anyone should be blamed for the lack of unification, it's those three, not Wlad. He's just the one who takes the flack because he's the one people are looking to to be the savior of the division.

 

Chagaev and Ibragimov are the top contenders after Wlad. So Peter is the #4.