Quote Originally Posted by Beanflicker View Post
Quote Originally Posted by Freedom View Post
Why do people like to bring up the Klitschko-Ibragimov fight? Wlad had trouble with Sultan's feints and movement, and so he couldn't get his punches off. Shannon Briggs and Evander Holyfield had even more problems with Sultan's defense-first approach taught by Jeff Mayweather, but it seems no one complains about all the dull fights American heavyweights had.

Seems to me a lot of boxers had their share of "stinkers", but sadly some people just love to criticize Wlad.
You're missing my point. It doesn't matter who's fault it was that the fight sucked, this isn't a bash fest for Wlad. All I'm saying is that the fight had a ton of mainstream attention, and so it was given a large stage for it to perform. Who's fault it was isn't relevant. The fact is, the fight was a complete abortion and surely soured potential boxing enthusiasts who decided to check this fight out due to the hype and media coverage leading up to it. These fans don't care who was at fault. All they care about is the fact that they plunked down a nice chunk of money to watch two guys stink out MSG.

If it was an exciting fight and/or ended in a great knockout, it would have gotten a ton more exposure post fight (making people more likely to check out Wlad's next fight) instead of turning would-be fans off and fading away like a fart in the wind.

Personally, I had high hopes for this fight because of the pre-fight hype. But it hugely disappointed. Had it been Wlad's only dull, safety-first performance of his career, I could've written it off..... similar to what happened with Lewis-Tua. But it wasn't, and I didn't. It became crystal clear that this was going to be the Wlad we would see from here on out. Probably ever since the two devastating KO's he suffered.

Would an exciting fight have made the difference in the HW division among American fans? Good question. Maybe. I know a lot of short-sighted fans just get behind American heavyweights... but a great deal more would've warmed up to Wlad if he had shown some of the fire people like to see. And to hear that Stewart himself got on Wlad's case for not taking Sultan out? That's a pretty telling fact right there.