vitali Klitschko vs J C Gomez 3-21-09

[superheavyrhun]

Vitali looked competent, but Gomez didn't have the tools to dismantle him and Klitschko was comfortable, and ought to have put him away earlier. At least gives Haye a plan b again if Wlad gets jelly-legs regarding the fight.

Over to RTE now for the Bernie Dunne bout.

[killersheep]

Call me crazy but I think Wlad would have beat that version of Vitali.

Gomez did what he could, but his gameplan wasn't quite right, smothering his work and trying to hook over the arm of a guy that much taller were bad ideas.

Vitali looked to have very poor conditioning, he did what we all expected in the end, but not nearly the way at least I expected. I'm sure some of it was from Gomez bouncing around though.

[Hunter]

Well Vitali did what was expected. It was an ugly fight but that can be blamed on Gomez, who bascally kept charging inside and than tieing up.

You cant fault Klitschko for the fight being a stinker because Gomez wasn't throwing and basically just wanted to clinch the whole time.

[TheDemolitionDan]

Vitali looked pretty good, nothing spectacular. Gomez did what he could early, but he wasn't in the best of shape and plus there's not much you can do against a giant. It was ok not as boring as I thought it would be.

Also, ESPN's coverage was horrible I hope there are no more big fights on ESPN. Stick with HBO or Showtime.

[Hunter]

Vitali looked pretty good, nothing spectacular. Gomez did what he could early, but he wasn't in the best of shape and plus there's not much you can do against a giant. It was ok not as boring as I thought it would be.

Also, ESPN's coverage was horrible I hope there are no more big fights on ESPN. Stick with HBO or Showtime.

Are you out of your mind I think they did a fine job, and would love to see more fights on ESPN.

[TheDemolitionDan]

Vitali looked pretty good, nothing spectacular. Gomez did what he could early, but he wasn't in the best of shape and plus there's not much you can do against a giant. It was ok not as boring as I thought it would be.

Also, ESPN's coverage was horrible I hope there are no more big fights on ESPN. Stick with HBO or Showtime.

Are you out of your mind I think they did a fine job, and would love to see more fights on ESPN.

Really? I thought the camera angles were horrible and it wasn't even in HD. Atlas and Brian Kenny did a good job calling the fight, but the whole brodcast stunk IMO.

[DaxxKahn]

Vitali looked pretty good, nothing spectacular. Gomez did what he could early, but he wasn't in the best of shape and plus there's not much you can do against a giant. It was ok not as boring as I thought it would be.

Also, ESPN's coverage was horrible I hope there are no more big fights on ESPN. Stick with HBO or Showtime.

Are you out of your mind I think they did a fine job, and would love to see more fights on ESPN.

Agree I mean this was a HW title fight with the second best (Depending on who you ask) HW in the world....The last HW champion to have a live HW title fight on TV for free was Lennox Lewis on FOX network.....That was a long time ago.....(SHO/HBO do not count as free they are premimum chanels)...

I wish the trend would continue

[Spicoli]

Vitali looked pretty good, nothing spectacular. Gomez did what he could early, but he wasn't in the best of shape and plus there's not much you can do against a giant. It was ok not as boring as I thought it would be.

Also, ESPN's coverage was horrible I hope there are no more big fights on ESPN. Stick with HBO or Showtime.

Are you out of your mind I think they did a fine job, and would love to see more fights on ESPN.

Really? I thought the camera angles were horrible and it wasn't even in HD. Atlas and Brian Kenny did a good job calling the fight, but the whole broadcast stunk IMO.

It was choppy. But I think they had no control,and were calling it from Stateside Studio with major editing and camera,interviews being decided by local German (?)broadcasters.Some how regardless...Teddy still came off like he had jet lag

[Hunter]

Are you out of your mind I think they did a fine job, and would love to see more fights on ESPN.

Really? I thought the camera angles were horrible and it wasn't even in HD. Atlas and Brian Kenny did a good job calling the fight, but the whole broadcast stunk IMO.

It was choppy. But I think they had no control,and were calling it from Stateside Studio with major editing and camera,interviews being decided by local German (?)broadcasters.Some how regardless...Teddy still came off like he had jet lag

If HBO or SHowtime wanted the fight it would have been on HBO or Showtime. It is nice to see ESPN in there picking up the fight otherwise it would have been on PPV.

[TheDemolitionDan]

Are you out of your mind I think they did a fine job, and would love to see more fights on ESPN.

Really? I thought the camera angles were horrible and it wasn't even in HD. Atlas and Brian Kenny did a good job calling the fight, but the whole broadcast stunk IMO.

It was choppy. But I think they had no control,and were calling it from Stateside Studio with major editing and camera,interviews being decided by local German (?)broadcasters.Some how regardless...Teddy still came off like he had jet lag

Well, if they had no control over it then my opinion would change. I do like the fact that it was free and on ESPN. Boxing should start doing this getting some fights on CBS,FOX,ABC, etc.....just as long it's in HD.

[superheavyrhun]

Well, if they had no control over it then my opinion would change. I do like the fact that it was free and on ESPN. Boxing should start doing this getting some fights on CBS,FOX,ABC, etc.....just as long it's in HD.

Back about 5-10 years ago, when boxing was solely on Sky Tv in the UK, it was pretty dismal and hard to access for many people. When Sports Network and Calzaghe though went with ITV, a free-to-air broadcaster the profile just went through the roof. However, it seems to have retreated back to the subscription channels for the most part, so it may fade once more, unless Froch becomes as big a star as Calzaghe was, as he's the biggest on ITV at the moment.

More fights on free TV would make as big a difference to the sport in the US as it did a few years ago over here, and can only be a good thing.

[1_COR_16.13]

What a fight. I really liked this one. It was an interesting fight because Gomez wasn't like all of Vitali's previous opponents. This guy, Gomez, had speed and heart.

There wasn't once where I thought VK was in trouble. He had patience and courage, didn't looked troubled at all. VK can take hits and today he showed this, like he showed it when he fought Lennox Lewis. Remind you, VK has NEVER been rocked by an opponent and today it didn't happen either.

The problem was his aerobic fitness. VK was tired after round 1. This was unusual considering he completely smashed Samuel Peter over the course of the match not so long ago. I was surprised and disappointed at this.
I think in the last couple of days, VK overworked himself. Days ago at the weigh-in, he looked great as well as the public training session. Today he looked tired!

JCG, what a fighter. I didn't expect VK to take this long but I knew it would be alot harder than Samuel Peter. I wish JCG had fought SP for the title, VK make a comeback and beat JCG for the Title, it would of made HW boxing more interesting today.
VK, despite using Chris Byrd (South) and Tony Thompson (South) as sparring partners, didn't seem to do very well in the first 2-3 rounds against this Southpaw.

I feel that problem is put down to VK finding it much more difficult to land that right-hand. If VK had landed those first few rights in the early rounds, the fight would of ended by round 5.

Nonetheless, a great and interesting fight. I admire JCG that little bit more but he never had a chance besides winning on a decision. I hope now he can keep his mouth a bit more placid.
VK deserved this and I hope continues to win the next 1-2 years he has left.

Where to from here? I want to see VK fight the Chagaev-Valuev winner to get both those fairies out of the game. VK shouldn't have to fight the 'finished' Maskaev because it would prove another one-sided-boring fight for VK. I want to see Wlad fight Haye in the very near future. I hope then the brothers can fight Povetkin and Arreola, who fights who doesn't bother me.

All the best to the great boxers, Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko.

P.S Natalia (Vitali's wife) looked hot tonight!!!

[DaxxKahn]

Really? I thought the camera angles were horrible and it wasn't even in HD. Atlas and Brian Kenny did a good job calling the fight, but the whole broadcast stunk IMO.

It was choppy. But I think they had no control,and were calling it from Stateside Studio with major editing and camera,interviews being decided by local German (?)broadcasters.Some how regardless...Teddy still came off like he had jet lag

Well, if they had no control over it then my opinion would change. I do like the fact that it was free and on ESPN. Boxing should start doing this getting some fights on CBS,FOX,ABC, etc.....just as long it's in HD.

There was a time that all the big fights were on ABC...Thats how the people who did not follow the sport knew ir was an important fight

[Spicoli]

It was choppy. But I think they had no control,and were calling it from Stateside Studio with major editing and camera,interviews being decided by local German (?)broadcasters.Some how regardless...Teddy still came off like he had jet lag

Well, if they had no control over it then my opinion would change. I do like the fact that it was free and on ESPN. Boxing should start doing this getting some fights on CBS,FOX,ABC, etc.....just as long it's in HD.

There was a time that all the big fights were on ABC...Thats how the people who did not follow the sport knew ir was an important fight

Miss the crazy Dierdorf.Daxx you had a great point a couple of weeks ago that put this one in perspective.As far as Stateside,when was the last time a major Heavyweight title fight aired on 'free' Tv,basic cable??I'm with all the above here...lets hope this is just the beginning.

[TheChosenOne]

its been a while i just got in, i the fight over?