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First Panama Lewis is rightfully banned from working a corner for life!
I am a strong believer in unifications. I came from a time when Champions were champions not "titlists". I think Wlad picked the weakest champion and hopefully if he wins as expected will someday meet meaningful challenges. But I kind of doubt it.;D
To be fair to Wlad, he couldn't fight the toughest beltholder (Peter), because Peter is legally obligated to fight Maskaev.Quote:
Originally Posted by ghoster
Ibragimov was the one beltholder that was available to fight.
wlad late ko
Well Sam Peter is NOT the beltholder, Oleg Maskaev is!Quote:
Originally Posted by SweetPea
Also Wladimir has been trying to get a unification bout forever and thanks to Ruslan Chagaev and Sultan Ibragimov not being able to come to an agreement Wlad has his shot.
This should make another unification fight easier to make because by one fighter having 2 belts and 2 other guys (winner of Peter-Maskaev and Ruslan Chagaev) having one each their status as titleholders will slip because one fighter will now have half the belts and be considered THE Heavyweight Champion of the World.
As for the actual Wladimir Klitschko (IBF) - Sultan Ibragimov (WBO) heavyweight title unification fight....I see a slightly dangerous fight for Wlad. Sultan is a southpaw and has some pop and he's not afraid to sell out his defense to land a power punch. Wladimir has huge advantages in size, strength, power, and over all boxing skill...I can see this being an early to mid rounds KO for Wladimir because Sultan doesn't seem to have the best of chins and his power is hard to judge...ie he KO'd Lance Whittaker but drew with Ray Austin.
This will be more of a challenge than the Brock fight, but it will be the same type of fight. Eventually Wlad will land the big punch and it will be over.
What if Valuev beats Chagaev in a rematch? That would make for a great unification with Valuev. I would love to see Wlad as the smaller man, but he's probably the only guy out their with the power to really hurt Valuev. I'd rather see that than see him fight Chagaev.
...oh by no means is Wlad the ONLY guy with the power to hurt Valuev. Nicolay has been hurt by the likes of Monte Barrett and Taras Bidenko.
Wladimir might be the only guy who can impliment his strategic use of power on Valuev.
I think plenty of fighters out there have the power to KO Valuev or hurt him but very few have the ABILITY to use that power on Valuev due to his size and the oddity of fighting such a big fighter...ie they are either scared of the giant or just befuddled by his size and have no idea how to attack him.
I think that would be a HUGE fight and I think it would propel Wladimir into the average household as THE guy in the division as long it's a brutal KO.....the Ibragimov fight might do that as well though.
By no means is this going to be as difficult as the Brock fight....Wladimir seemed flat or just puzzled by Brock's style. Sultan's style is pretty straight forward and he's not much of a BOXER from what I have seen he's more of a brawler and I think Wladimir will keep his distance with the jab and he might use the uppercut more in this fight which will be neat to see
Peter is actually considered the interim champ right now. When Maskaev bailed from the fight, they made the Peter-McCline fight a title fight, with the condition that the winner had to fight Maskaev next.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lyle
But my main point was that Wlad isn't fighting Ibragimov because he's the weakest beltholder. He's fighting him because he's the only one who was available, because of the whole Peter/Maskaev/Vitali clusterf*ck.
I don't see a whole lot of suspense to this fight.
To be fair to Sultan, I think he is more difficult than Brock. Brock was just a perfect foil for Wlad, slow plodder, not much power, slow of foot, slow of hand, very orthodox guy. Sultan at least can move a bit, has a fairly quick left hand.
Don't think he'll win though, Wlad by TKO, Sultan could maybe make it go 12 if he stinks it out.