Quote Originally Posted by miles View Post
Quote Originally Posted by Pugilistic View Post
Quote Originally Posted by miles View Post

Good post. In no other division can you hold such obvious advantages over your opponents and he plays it extremely safe in order to make the win. You have to respect him doing what he needs to do to win, but why on earth are 50, 000 people wanting to see it? It is bloody boring.

Jab, jab, jab then clinch if he can. I quite like how Chambers picked him up twice. I would like to see more of that. Chambers was simply too small and had the wrong style. What we need is either more big heavyweights who can deploy the same tools Wlad does or a strong smaller heavyweight who will move the head, slip and get inside and fire off punches before Wlad can. Someone like prime Tyson would have eaten Wlad Klitschko up for breakfast. Klitschko is really no defensive master, not at all. He just looks decent against fighters who give up trying to win and who turn all Clottey-esque on us.
Although i agree that a prime Tyson would cause Wlad major problems because of the speed, power, head movement and angles, You shouldn't discredit Wlad's abilities in the ring and his achivements regardless of how weak the division is. Calzaghe and Hopkins are great fighters but the division's they dominated weren't that good really but there dominance was too good to go ignored.

Wlad is a great boxer, he is awesome at fighting at his range and at controlling the pace, his footwork is great. His jab is deadly accurate and his right hand and left hook can take you out if landed clean. His handspeed is good for a fighter his size also. The only thing his game lacks is body work and an inside game but with his reach and height advantage he doesn't really need them.

Chambers did try and win tonight, he simply couldn't get past the jab and Wlad's footwork threw him off. When ever Eddie fired punches, Wlad would take a few steps back, avoid Eddie shots and start firing the jab again. Thats really frustrating for a fighter to deal with especially a accurate guy like Chambers.
Hopkins and Calzaghe were fighting men who weighed the same and had similar physical tools. There were no 40 pound weight differentials to be dealing with. If the guy was taller, then at least you knew you weighed the same. The other weight classes exist for good reason. Only at heavyweight can you get such size disparities.

Don't get me wrong Wlad does what he needs to do and it isn't his fault that there is noone to challenge him, but Chambers could quite easily make cruiserweight. Wlad is a superheavyweight really. I think the size can be overcome with skills, but unfortunately there seems to be nothing much on the horizon. A Tyson type figure would put the fear of god into Wlad. Tyson would be his achilles heel. I just don't see how Wladimir would be able to keep him off and stay calm enough to not allow his stamina to suffer badly. Chambers is quite quick, but not offensive minded in the slightest. He has no real power and was too willing to just let the seconds tick by while Wlad kept pawing at the guard.

I've always much preferred Vitali to Wlad, at least the man engages and throws punches.
yes and someone with the advantages of Wladimer, fights like he has none at all.

As I said he has size, reach, speed, accuracy and POWER over any other Heavyweight out there. A height and reach advantage as well.

Now, why would someone with all these advantages have to take 12 rounds to stop any opponent? Simply put he is afraid of getting knocked out again. If he used all the skill he has he would be blowing people out in a round or two. You can talk trash about Lennox Lewis all you want but when he had someone he took them out of there so he wouldnt get caught with anything crazy. Wladimer just prolongs and prolongs and prolongs.

When Lennox had someone hurt he got them out.

Fact is Wladimer would take 12 rounds to beat Andrew Golata now, and Lewis knocked him out in the first round.

People can try to say Lennox was boring but he never "prolong"ed anything.

Tua he never really hurt and boxed safely and it was a boring fight. But Wladimer has no tua's in front of him, no one thats gonna blow him out. he had freaking eddie chambers in front of him, 50 pound weight advantage, 6 inch height advantage probably a long reach advantage too and yet it takes him 12 rounds to beat this guy? Why anyone tries to excuse Wlads boringness is beyond me