Wlad's amazing defense vs Ibragimov. Photos, and explanations.

good analysis. wlad has become much better defensively. not always spectacular but very effective. i mean the man regarded as 2nd or 3rd best boxer in the world only won 1.5 rounds against waldo.

 

I agree but there are also some photo's where Ibragimov is attacking and Wlad's arms are all over the place. He tends to panic a bit sometimes and I hope he can get rid of that habit.

I'm a Wlad fan and I'm happy he unified but the sole fact he threw only a few right hands in the whole damn fight made it frustrating to watch the fight. It's about confidence and Manny needs to work with him on that.

 

I have no problem with good defensive boxing. The problem with Wlad in that fight was his overly cautious approach. You mentioned Mayweather. While he is a relavtively cautious fighter with great defense, I've never seen him as timid as Wlad was in that fight. Look at his fight against Judah(a lefty with very fast hands and good power). He got hit with a couple of good counter shots in that fight yet he kept attacking. Judah gave him oppportunities to attack and he did.

In the Klitscho fight, Sultan gave Wlad numerous opportunities to attack and he seemed unwilling to take advantage. There were times when Sultan would come in with wide punches, which got him off balance and left him open for counters. Wlad rarely tried to take adavantage. The double jab, followed by the straight right seemed to work on Sultan. However, Wlad rarely even tried this combo, even when Sultan was trapped against the ropes or in the corner. When Wlad was knocking down that jab, Sultan was open for counters. Wlad rarely captialized. When he did, he was successful.

All in all, this was a strange performance by Wlad. Wlad had a huge size, reach, and skill advantage over Sultan. Sultan gave him ample opportunities to inflict damage upon him. Finally, Sultan never landed one meaningful punch on Wlad. Given all of this, it was quite puzzling that Wlad was content to just sit back and jab all night. Wlad is not a small WW. He's a huge HW with the power to KO any fighter on the planet. He was going against a guy who was totally overmatched and posed very little threat offensively. There's no way he should have been as cautious as he was in that fight.

 

Double standard in boxing, Vlad has improved in alot of area's no need to be reckless, Sultan should have taken more chances he was way behind

 

You had a guy behind the microphone who always talks about loving the sweet science and who was often critisised for indulging in the art of hitting and not getting hit, even he, Lennox Lewis was aghast at the non punching of Wlad and said he would be looking to throw certain other punches by then. Its not that those watching didnt appreciate sweet science of boxing, Wlad didnt employ much of the HITTING part of the equation and concentrated in anxiety on not getting hit!

 

Mayweather was pretty aggessive the whole fight. It's not like he was sitting back and getting countered, then decided to be aggressive. Look, if your happy with 6 "6 240 lb. guy fighting like Paulie Malignaggi, that's on you. I, like Manny Steward, the HBO crew and the entire pro Wlad crowd, felt that Wlad was too cautious. He pretty much did nothing besides throw single jabs the entire fight.

 

Even with the paltry amount of power punches he was throwing (although twice that of Wlad), Sultan was able to land 45% of those.
It was only his lousy jabbing that dropped his overall accuracy so low, mainly due to him hopefully throwing it even when Wlad was way out of range.

Wlad has good defence, but this would not be the fight I'd use to show it, not even top 5.

When someone throws so little, they land even less, and that was the case with Sultan.

 

I always get the impression Lewis gives Wlad too much credit, Lewis has said before that he favours Wlad because of him having his old trainer, he also defends Wlads chin when everyone else says its glass.

 

45%?? I don't know what those CompuBox guys were watching, but no way did Sultan land 45% of his power punches. Almost all of them missed when Wlad stepped back or used his shoulders/arms to block them.

I can't remember more than two or three headshots landing clean. Bodyshots weren't that regularly landed, either.

Well it's very hard to get your punches off against a tall opponent with very fast hands and feet who keeps a gap between you two, and in addition, can take your head off with a counter. Pity he didn't try that! He knocked the durable Schulz down with a counter 1-2. I'm interested in seeing if Povetkin can sustain his workrate against Wlad.