I think if a fighter loses to fighters of this caliber frequently, they should never be forgiven. But, if they lose only once because of some fluke, and they go on to have a stellar career, that loss should be forgotten. B-Hop lost his first fight ever of his career, and you know it was to a really bad fighter. What then should be thought of B-Hop because of this loss? If Wlad never loses ever again, and he KO's almost all of them, and never ducks someone, mark my word, no one will ever remember the Ross Purtiy fight. It will only be mentioned in the trivial pursuit edition of boxing.
So in order for Wlad to gain acceptance...he'd have to beat Corrie Sanders...a guy NOBODY seems to remember, whose pushing about 40-ish and is in terrible shape. That'd be like the captain of the wrestling team challenging the captain of the chess team to a wrestling match in order to be "accepted". What Wlad needs to do if he wants "acceptance" is be in a war where he rallies back and decisively KOs his opponent. Then noone can say "well that guy never was in a REAL battle to test his mettle" about him or question his heart, as I've seen happen before. THAT is what Wlad needs to happen...but it won't because he's so much better than his competition.
Wlad had a big chance to gain acceptance as the man in the fight again sultan. First heavyweight unification for donkey's years. A chance to shine. A chance to capture the public's imagination with a dominating performance. Instead Wlad adopts a safety first approach against a man he was far taller than, far heavier than, far outreached, far out powered, and far out skilled. He could have knocked him out by throwing a couple of successive right hands ffs! To me that set him back a long way.
Wlad needs to beat Povetkin and Valuev/Chagaev. A rematch with Peter would be great if Peter beats Vitali. After that, he could beat three more contenders just to put more substance into his resume. I think Wlad can be a Top15 HW of all time.
Getting KO'd happens in boxing, it's what you do after the loss is what matters. And Wladimir's done very well since the losses. Haye's going to get KO'd when they fight. I'm looking forward to that match-up.
Wladimir is the king of the heavyweights whether people like it or not. He's a very difficult fighter to beat and if you take away the Sanders fight (which can happen to anyone), the other 2 guys who beat him both took ungodly amounts of punishment to win and their wins weren't terribly emphatic either. Wlad was just exhausted and they took advantage. The criticism that Wlad endures can be countered pretty easily if you look at it and I'm not even a Klitschko fan. In fact, I usually root for the other guy even though I know it's an exercise in futility. 1.) Weak chin - ok but he gets up every time. Nobody's starching him with 1 punch. 2.) Gunshy - when he does unload it's usually lights out. Ask Calvin Brock. 3.) Holds too much - not enough to warrant a point deduction. Wlad does it very tactically. He's no Ruiz. 4.) Is sometimes boring - ok the Ibragimov fight was bad but he stopped the next guy. What else do you want?
Does anyone remember when Wlad used to throw that sweeping right hook? What ever happened to that? Man Manny Steward just destroyed his style.
You kidding? You think Wladimir would be where he is today with Fritz Sdunek? No sparring, not knowing that it's ok to hold when you're hurt, and questionable conditioning? These things are to be overlooked? Manny Steward helped return Wladimir to prominence. He's a better fighter now than he's ever been.
Absolutly right. Wlad is a more complete fighter and he had a fight plan, made by Emanuel Steward. Steward also teaches Lennox Lewis. And so he did with Wladimir and this helped Wladimir a lot. It is sad, that Wlad could not work with Manny since 2000 or from 1998. (1996-1998 he worked with Wladimir Zolotarew, his old amateur coach, Sdunek was in the corner but did not work in the gym with Wladimir.) Who critize Wlad for holding, watch Tyson vs. Lewis. Lewis hold and tired Tyson up, same Wlad did in his fights, and then Lewis finished Tyson. That is real professinal boxing.