Quote Originally Posted by p4pking View Post
There is a difference between clinching and mauling/leaning/grappling/whatever the hell Wlad was doing that night. Pushing Povetkin down the way he did was hideous to watch and clearly not within the rules. You're basically saying because it was a bad style for him, he shouldn't have been expected to try and box? The ref deserves most of the blame imo, as he never attempted to get control of the fight and clean up the action at all. Wlad is a great and dominant champion, but this fight was really embarrassing on his behalf.
No, actually I agree with you that pushing down on Povetkins back and neck were definitely out of order, and throwing/pushing him down. And yes, the referee was definitely on vacation during that fight. There were maybe a few times when a point deduction may have been in order.

But looking at the fight as a whole, I think it was a bad styles match. Klitschko could have refrained from the above mentioned antics and still have gotten the win with merely normal clinching and tying Povetkin up. And I don't even like to see clinching personally, but I must admit that the size difference between these two combined with their fighting styles almost leads to clinch situations by itself. Alternately Klitschko could have tried to jab while stepping back more often, although I do think Povetkin was a tricker target to use that method. -- Oh, and Klitschko could have tried the uppercut as well. Almost forgot about that one.