Wlad-Fury - Plus Rod Stewart. 10pm. Saturday/SKY PPV. Fact.

[TitoFan]

Sick and tired of hearing about the damn 10 years, as if a number alone can define what the reign was really about. Fact is... his style has always been safety first, safety second, safety third. Protect that chin at all costs, quality of the fight be damned. Although you can poke holes in the opponents of every HW champ if you really want to, fact is Wlad's opponents were a procession of has-beens and never-will-be's. On the rare occasion someone did present a real danger to Wlad, and fans got all pumped up at the prospect of a heavyweight fight like in the old days..... Wlad proceeded to foul things up by precisely that.... fouling his way to a survival...er... I mean... victory. Many people might not say it, out of grudging respect for the 10 years. But the fact of the matter is most fans are ecstatic Wlad's finally gone.

[Mr140]

I have not really cared who has been hw champ since Holyfeild called it a day but being champ for that long with guys over 230 plus trying to knock you out is not a easy task. I mean look who Tyson lost to and look who Lewis lost to people who were not even close to them in talent but a guy throwing punches who weighs over 230 is a different animal not mention Wald 39 a lot fighters lose at that age. I know you do not like the guy and thats fine but it is not easy task to be champ that long for anyone and it is even harder in hw because a punch can end it a lot easier then in other weightclasses.

[TitoFan]

I'm not saying that lasting that long (10 years) was not a feat in itself. Anybody can come out of the woodwork and beat a champ on any given day... and HW punches are more prone to cause 1-punch knockouts in general than in other weight classes. But what you say can easily apply to anybody who holds the HW title. It doesn't have to be a dull, boring, torturous affair. Lewis and Tyson, guys you mentioned, were very successful at the top, and dominant in their own time. Yet people enjoyed watching them fight. Why? Because although they paid attention to defense in their own way, they were also quite a bit into offensive fighting.... actually trying to knock the other guy out. Sometimes in the process they would engage in toe-to-toe exchanges, with each guy giving as good as he took. That could never happen with Wlad. The moment he took a decent one on the chin, he'd be down and out. He knows this..... so he fights like crap. The fact he's knocked out so many opponents is a testament to how little resistance they've put up when in the ring. Of the few exceptions, you had guys like Povetkin, who came in to make an honest effort to win, and what did Wlad do? Turn the fight into a "foul-fest". There's no way you can make a comparison between the quality of Lewis and Mike Tyson fights and Wlad fights and have Wlad look good. No way. Lewis' and Tyson's fights were exciting, and they brought fans to HW boxing. Wlad's fights have turned people off from the division.