Wlad is terrified of being hit: That explains everything

So did Floyd and RJJr. Fear is what fueled their defense.

 

He's not scared of the pain, he's scared of losing. I remember him brutalizing Brewster only to gas and get KO'd. But he was a machine. Would be amazing if he let his hands go and ktfo Fury but that's expecting too much.

 

I think that you may be right.

Maybe what was going through his mind the whole night was "just don't get KO'd by this clown, just don't lose to this clown" and the net result was that he threw so few punches that ... he lost to the clown.

But now he HAS lost and imho needs to say "stuff it" and go for broke in the rematch.

 

Fear is good. it's normal.
But the difference is what the hero does with his fear and what the coward does with his fear. That's what differentiates the hero from the coward...

That's Cus D'Amato's saying.

Wlad out of his excessive fear resorted to an illegal style that was solely based on clinching/leaning to tire his opponent out and only then knock the guy out (when the risk was 0.0% and not more).

That is clearly not the way to go.
Other fighters dealt with their fear to keep it from becoming excessive, improved their defense and took calculated risks at times (instead of continuously or never at all). This is what Wlad now has to do in the rematch. Whether he has the guts to do this is something else...

 

Only if you lose the jab war. Otherwise you can still stick with the 2-3 power punches per round.

 

This. I think he was worried that pre fight fury was a laughing stock and getting KO'd by him would turn his entire career into a meme basically.

 

He should be more terrified of losing and being shown up by nando squad.

 

You'd be scared of getting hit too, if you grew up with Vitali beating your ass.

 

He got beat because for the 1st time in his career he had a guy who could move faster than he could and while being out of harms way himself could still land something on wlad.

Haye was trying to do exactly the same but when he got out of wlad punching range he couldn't do anything himself. Fury could even if they were only glancing tappy blows. Wlad was scared of getting a big punch and didn't want to leave himself open. For years Wlads styles has relied on his jab no one has really taken it away from him Fury did. People have said for years take Wlads jab away and his offence stops and it was true.. He couldn't throw the jab so he was too gun shy to throw the right...

Think this is the end for Wlad now hes only going to get older and slower he will need vastly improved game plan 2nd time around.

A good fighter in a poor era

 

We've known that for years. He used to still commit to his game plan confident that it would minimize the risk of getting hit while putting effort into winning. That is the part that was missing on Saturday.