Quote Originally Posted by Snakey
Byrd was the best of the champions IMO but this stylistically was a bad match up. Byrds defence has been sliding and his fights have become closer coz of becoming more agressive. Actually just to put it in short....wlad has his number. He beat him badly once and he did it again coz he knows how to. That leaves Peter....peter peter peter....i was never sold on peter. Everyone was lookin for a big powerful heavyweight to save the division....sorry people the division needs more then that and Peter couldnt offer it. It was obvious vs wlad that he had barely any skill and relied on nothing but pure punching power. Now i think the question should be....has wlad fixed his flaws? Wacko you say stamina and i say chin. But i do agree that wlads stamina has been a problem but Sanders knocked him out in two rounds. Granted...Sanders can punch but having a solid chin means taking solid shot and so far...wlad cant. He took some against brewster...got tired .....but got knocked out which IMO involves both problems, sanders took him by surprise...hurt him and knocked him out and Purtiy and exhausted him. I say he has a questionable chin and he knows it now and seems to be afraid of getting hurt just like how roy jones was against tarver the third time. He lost his aura of invincibility and has to learn how to deal with getting hurt. But in saying that i think from his record....stamina is the major problem. So really we have a big, powerful, skillful heavyweight who has been known to get tired in the later rounds and has been known to be a bit chinny.
The Peter fight is now that you mention it says alot about Klitchko. Peter who has limited skills, still was able to knock him down three times and almost knock him out. Can you imagine that fight if there wasn't any excessive holding? Does anyone really believe the result would have been the same? Henry Akinwande was DQed in about 5 or 6 rounds when he was holding Lennox Lewis. Wlad did it for 12 rounds and was barely warned. I think the rules only apply to boxers who don't have big network contracts or huge popularity that make boxing alot of money. Wlad is a very good fighter but I wonder how far he can really go without holding and pushing off.