Damn, so sad to see Abdusalamov like that

But I saw that fight and Abdusalamov was, with all due respect to him, a punching bag for Perez with no defense. He would plod forward and get punched in the head with no real attempt to avoid it.

I think there's a great middle ground between "punching bag" and "running scared" that many a great fight has stayed. Of course a fighter needs to be cognizant of punches coming his way, but it must not deter him from throwing punches himself.

Guys like Clinch-ko and Chicken Floyd would stink out arenas because they were happy to go the distance. Wlad would grab and hug and Eric is right, he would have been disqualified many times if he wasn't in his own territory.