shocking ref shocking wlad!

88Chris05 wrote:Strange one from Wlad, last night. Glimpses of real quality at times; slickest jab in the Heavyweight division right now, his excellent power even when he's not coming forward, some nifty footwork which belies his huge frame. But in between all of that, way too much fouling and spoiling, even by his own standards, and I was surprised at his failure to put Povetkin away, given the amount of softening up he did throughout the fight.

In fairness to Wlad, while I was disappointed with him, he's not alone. Ali spent three fights against Frazier spoiling, pushing Joe's head down with the elbow, tying him up in close etc whenever he got the chance. Foreman got away with murder practically bench pressing his opponents off him and across the ring, the same tactic which got Khan in to a world of trouble against Peterson. Marciano used the punch-grab technique long before Wladimir ever came around.

No, what gets me most about Wladimir is that he just seems too content to box within himself at times, and that's the difference between him and the other three I've just mentioned, as well as the primary reason for why he gets held to account by the fans for his spoiling far more than those fellas ever will. By the halfway stage last night, you just felt that the threat had been extinguished and that the road was clear for Wladimir to open up, abandon that overly cautious attitude (which was more understandable early on) and go in for the kill. But he never did.

Wladimir's a talented fighter and yet, despite his record being pretty impressive, we've not seen the best of him, for me, and fights like the one last night do him a disservice, as well as giving his biggest critics a legitimate reason to hound him, too. He was spot on in altering his style and approach given his early career setbacks, but last night's showing was proof enough for me that, if anything, he's gone too far the other way when he really needn't have.

He may have pitched a shut out, but Wladimir didn't enhance his reputation for me last night.

Champagne_Socialist wrote:If Wlad didn't have such a good defence and all of his fights were brawls and his fight with haye was FOTY and his fight with Povetkin involved both fighters being Knocked down 3 times then people would be saying that wlad is better than what he is.

The problem for wlad is that he is so good that his fights are so one sided and they are boring. People then equate being boring to not being very good and thus they say that the klitschkos are overrated etc.

The real issue is that his fights are boring not because he lacks talent but the very opposite, because he has too much talent.

John Bloody Wayne wrote:Can't stand spoiling. It's not boxing. Those forearms are relentless.

Champagne_Socialist wrote:

hampo171 wrote:Everyone is focussing the blame on Wlad instead of Pabon. It's like diving in football if it doesn't get punished players carry on doing it, Wlad didn't get punished so used it to his advantage.

he did get docked a point.

Amir Khan was constantly fouling against peterson by pushing, think he pushed over 60 times. People on here were defending Khan etc yet when klitschko does an equal foul suddenly he is torn apart for it.

TopHat24/7 wrote:

Champagne_Socialist wrote:

hampo171 wrote:Everyone is focussing the blame on Wlad instead of Pabon. It's like diving in football if it doesn't get punished players carry on doing it, Wlad didn't get punished so used it to his advantage.

he did get docked a point.

Amir Khan was constantly fouling against peterson by pushing, think he pushed over 60 times. People on here were defending Khan etc yet when klitschko does an equal foul suddenly he is torn apart for it.

What???!! Did you count?! Hell, did you even watch the fight? Or Wlad's fight for that matter.....?

TopHat24/7 wrote:Absolutely ridiculous vid.  At least half of those supposedly 'counted' weren't even pushes.  Every fight would end DQ if it went by that prat's rules.

Still, not the first time you've posted a ridiculously biased youtube vid to support your views, you did the same re Lewis vs Vitali with some silly K2 highlight real produce by a Russian so brazen it even came with a hammer and sickle on the video!!