Watch the way he fights now, vs when he took on guys like TOS, Barrett, Sanders, Brewster the first time...he is a completely different, much better fighter. He looks bigger and stronger these days too
He is much better now, but remember when he used to throw bombs and lots of them, he was great to watch. If the guy had a chin he could have been a superstar(in the general public's eye). But at the end of the day he does what he has to with the skills god gave him. props to the champ
Wlad's chin was never the problem. Wlad's over-aggressiveness and out of balance attacks is what used to be his problem. Wlad used to over extend himself horrible on his power shots, and he used to drop his guard and back out in a lazy fashion after his attacks. Manny Steward helped him fix that... and the rest is history. It wasn't that Wlad had no chin... it's that he put himself in the position to take the wrong kind of punches, and he had no idea what to do if he was hurt. All of that has changed. Fighters with glass jaws don't go years and years fighting at the top of the sport without touching the canvas. They don't eat up power punches from guys like David Haye and Sam Peter and win the fight. Wlad's chin is fine... his talent was never properly molded until he got with Steward.
Ruslan Chagaev, Sam Peter, David Haye, Sultan Ibragimov, Eddie Chambers, Calvin Brock, Chris Byrd are bums?
You make a good point. I didn't mean to suggest his syle wasn't a factor in losses and that it was all "lack of chin". I was mearly getting nostalgic. I started getting interested in boxing around the time Wlad was coming up. I was and still am a fan. Wlad has stamina issues (at times it seems). He also seems to get "scared" for a lack of a better term, when aggressively engaged and these are contributing factors to his losses, but don't tell me his chin isn't a problem.
Wlad has made wonders in improving his game. After his loss to Brewster nobody saw this coming. Lets see how far he can go...
I always thought Vitali was the better heavyweight personally an would piick him to do better against the greats of the past. More durable with a better killer instinct
