To be fair to Wlad, until this recent fight I was only mildly bothered by the holding. I think it was at the beginning of the rematch against Sam Peter where he started the first few rounds clinching. After that he eased up. Against Haye he only clinched a little but it helped that Haye stayed away from Wlad as much as he could.

I think Wlads problem is he doesn't want to or can't in fight. So he just clinches. Povetkin was hoping to take the fight to the inside.
Oops.
Looks like if any small fighters hope to fight Wlad, they better have a miracle because there will be no infighting if Wlad has any say in it.