Povetkin vs. Wach showed inside fighting at its best

[Tom Cruise]

Do these guys know they can fight on the inside? Your arms are free ffs! Ref needs to leave them alone and let these guys fight

This was all taken from the second half of round nine.

[Tom Cruise]

I'd take ugly Andre Ward/Ricky Hatton style clinch fighting over this any day.

Completely ruins the flow of the sport.

[Tom Cruise]

One more from second half round 9 that I couldnt put in OP.

This one shows some more of the clinch just incase people were thinking they had stopped fighting due to ref shouting break

[NEETzsche]

those are gentlest clinches i've ever seen

[Pain~Lucy]

both probably missed wladimir hugging

[Luiz]

It's Eastern Euro thing. Most these guys are clueless at inside. Probably due amateur school.

[BostonGuy]

Hit the nail right on the head. I was thinking the same exact thing whilst watching the fight. Povetkin is great on the outside and is very good at negotiating the distance to get in punching range. However, as evidenced by the clips, he was content with just stopping his offense and resetting when he was in close proximity to a clinch.

And **** Nady for such poor reffing. When the fighters got close 'inside' he was much too quick to break them apart. A good ref would instruct the fighters to 'fight their way out, since their hands were free.'

[Tom Cruise]

It's Eastern Euro thing. Most these guys are clueless at inside. Probably due amateur school.

Ams definitely play a big part. Easier for judges to see flashy outside punches than scrappy inside ones so eventually fighters just stopped bothering to work on the inside.

The pro's should be different though. Ref needs to leave them to it. If they wanna hug with their arms free all night and let the crowd boo them then so be it, fans wont pay to their next fight. If both guys decide they want to fight then great. If one or both want to clinch excessively then deduct points.

Easy. If the arms are free then the ref has no business getting involved. Happens way to much.

[1hourRun]

It didn't help that Jay Nady was warning Wach for clinching as soon as the bell rang , also the fight was under Povetkins control and it was all going his way so why change anything? Wach landed some pretty good uppercuts in the latter rounds thats when he should walk towards Povetkin and work him in the inside but he kept to his fail strategy of keeping the Russian at a distance..so there you go.

[Tom Cruise]

both probably missed wladimir hugging

Talking of Wlad, I think he gets away with much more clinching than he would do otherwise because his opponents stop working in close.

Jennings did a good job of trying to keep the workrate up, and it makes it obvious to the ref who is trying to stop the action. Eventually he was deducted points and the fight got more interesting