Why the Klitschko's, ESPECIALLY Wlad, avoided Valuev.

First I want to say that I respect Vitali. His fight with Lennox Lewis gave me everything I needed to know about his ability, talent, and fortitude as a fighter. I think he is a great fighter and could potentially be a difficult fight for anybody in history at heavyweight.

But I don't think he wanted to fight Valuev, which is why he priced himself out.

Vitali showed me when he went up against an opponent who matched him physically in Lewis, that his height and reach advantage wasn't his only form of defense. He proved that he could, duck, move and pivot to get out of the way.

This version of Vitali would likely have very little problem with Valuev and may even be capable of wearing him down and stopping him.

However, that was many years ago, and Vitali today, while still a capable fighter is less mobile than he was when he fought Lewis. He's had multiple injuries and while there isn't anything apparent in the ring, given his level of opposition, it is likely that he's lost a step.

This means that he would be far more hittable in a fight with Valuev who has a reach, height, and size advantage, and possibly has one of the strongest jaws in heavyweight history as his head is the size of at least two basketballs.

Vitali has been using his height, reach, and superior technical skills to beat his opponents recently and has not been in a position where it was necessary to duck punches. And while Vitali is a warrior in my opinion, I don't think he felt Valuev was worth the trouble, and to be honest, I don't blame him.

This is why he priced himself out.

Now, his brother Wlad.

Well Wlad has a way of avoiding any real challenges to begin with. Of course, he wanted his brother to deal with Valuev, which is why there was little talk of negotiations with Wladimir.

The problem with Wlad is he can't handle getting punched. Not only does he have a poor chin, but he has a tendency to panic when being hit. In fact, in the second knockdown in the Sanders fight, he went down without being hit, and cowered on the ground. The third round was basically just him covering up, falling to the ground, and being completely dominated.

In the Brewster fight, he panicked again, and a guy that never should have beat him knocked him out once again. Then in the Peter fight, a highly unskilled, slow, and even lethargic fighter managed to land wide hooks to put Wladimir on the ground.

It is no secret that Wlad has a terrible chin and a tendency to panic.

In all of his fights since the Peter incident, his entire style has been predicated around protecting his chin. This makes Klitschko one dimensional, but due to his physical capabilities and the inabilities of his opponents both intellectually and physically, he has been unstoppable if boring.

Fights where other greats would have stopped their opponents in half the time it takes Wlad, go on and on as the audience is often put to sleep.

So this is where Valuev comes in.

Valuev was champion for plenty long enough for Klitschko to attempt to unify the titles, but there was a reason he failed to do this.

Valuev is a nightmare matchup for him.

Why?

Well look at Valeuv's "losses." Chagaev, Holyfield (who did not beat him), and Ruiz (who did not beat him), all managed to do well against him because they got inside of his reach and beat Valuev on the inside, inside of his massive reach.

Klitschko has never been forced to fight as the smaller man, and given his chin issues, and his lack of upperbody mobility, it is highly unlikely that he would be successful in this venture, despite the fact that Valuev has a reach, height, and size advantage and Wlad may be forced to do this.

This leaves the other option.

Outside of Valuev's reach is exceedingly dangerous, and only one tallented individual has been able to beat him in that position. Obviously, I'm talking about David Haye who used excellent lateral mobility, upperbody movement, angles, and combination punching from every direction.

These are obviously things that Wlad does not and probably cannot do.

It is not enough for Wlad to simply back away and lean back as he does against the majority of his shorter opponents because Valuev's superior reach will mean that Klitschko will get hit.

His defense is not impregnable either, and Klitschko has not shown any propensity for counterpunching. In fact in a recent article in the RING MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 2011 REGARDING MARTINEZ VS WILLIAMS 2, Wlad's VERY OWN trainer, Manny Steward said that he has never seen a big tall man able to fight backwards with the exception of TOMMY HEARNS.

Considering Manny is Wlad's trainer, this is a big statement. Wlad cannot fight backwards. When he was being pushed back with Sam Peter's unintelligent aggression, where he only threw 9 JABS, his accuracy suffered and Klitschko looked unnerved.

While Valuev will obviously use a different approach, Klitschko will continually get hit with long punches.

It is also unlikely that Klitschko would knock Valuev out because he is very predictable in his approach, and Valuev will see everything coming.

Remember, STYLES make FIGHTS.

And Wlad, once again, found a way to WORM his way out of a fight PEOPLE WANTED TO SEE.