Is Wladimir on the slide/shot?

His clinching skills are diminishing. He could probably fight off a bear though with jabs so I'm sure he will be fine until he is 50 unless he fights Wilder

Forgetting it was a stinker and sure he 'dominated' but I can't get over how awful he looked. Ignoring the hugging and such did anybody else think hes seemingly aged badly overnight? His feet was all over the place. I'm not one who thinks hes robotic, I think he moves exceptionally well for a guy of his size & is pretty light on his feet. He looked slow and sluggish despite weighing in less than he usually does. He barely threw his right hand at all! He fought the whole fight one handed. His shots didn't appear to have much snap It leaves me believing this generation of HWs is even worse than people think. Jab, clinch, jab, clinch after this has happened 50 times you'd of thought a guy would of worked a way around it, right? Or tried to at least The key to beating Wladimir IMO is somebody explosive with good head movement, a mid-range combination puncher. I legitimately believe that despite being a cruiserweight that Rakhim Chahkhiev would knock Wladimir out. I think he brutalises him. Absolutely destroys him in shockingly one sided fashion. Hes not going to plod inside & let Wlad lean on him. Hes not going to stay on the end of Wlads jab and invite that right hand. Rakhim has questionable stamina but did you see how quickly Wladimir faded when being forced out of his comfort zone? Rakhims style is reminiscent of Sanders. I feel Wlads still the same fighter hes just had nobody in there capable of exploiting his weaknesses. Where was the overhand right from Povetkin? I always did feel just about everyone was harsh of Wladimir but on that performance despite winning just about every round I now have a very hard time seeing him hanging with the best HWs. Its harsh as hes at the end of his career, hes aging and its inevitable but he is not as good as I thought he was. He had no answers but to grab & lean.Ok, you want honesty. Yes he is on the decline. Where was the jab? Why all of the hugging and clinching? When you get older you know that you're going to take some shots. You get better in other areas. Wlad doesn't commit to the body and his jab is not landing like it used to. Look what he resorted to doing to win against a guy who wanted to get inside. He looked old. He looked like a bully, and not the guy some have said ranks up there with the top 10.

I think its quite evident Wladimir is slipping with age, but that does not mean there's a smaller gap in competition, I can see him going strong for 5 more years if he is allowed to clinch as seen in a few nights ago. When he didn't clinch his jab was on Povetkin's face. Povetkin is still an amazing fighter but he is, without mentioning his inside game, an inferior boxer to Wladimir. Wladimir found the distance to land the shots he wanted to land. Most of the time he saw Povetkin's punches coming. The problem with Wlad is that, contrary to his ( I think) superior brother, he doesn't want to fight fire with fire. He still has a nice uppercut that he may use. He didn't use his jab as a tool to control the distance and connect some combos at all.

I don't think he is fading... well much at least, I think if someone rushes at him like a bull in a china shop he would always react in a similar way, because that is the Steward way in the absolute extreme. I would have liked to see Povetkin work more on the way in, work more on the inside, work more in the clinch, foul Wlad back when it is clear the ref is doing nothing and the main one get inside but don't go too far in

I agree with you that Wlad is not shot, but what's this thing about Fury's 'inside fighting'? I saw it in other threads as well, and was baffled by it. Inside or outside, Fury is garbage imo. He has size and OK (though not great) power but very little else. Fury's inside game is a myth. He stuck his head to Chisora's one and kept throwing clumsy uppercuts and hooks. Fury is still a dangerous fight for W.K because Fury can fight tall. The first clean one-two Wlad lands would put Fury in trouble.

Wlad needs coach, someone to substitude Steward in his team... but how can you sustitute Steward?

I think its quite evident Wladimir is slipping with age, but that does not mean there's a smaller gap in competition, I can see him going strong for 5 more years if he is allowed to clinch as seen in a few nights ago.

One thing Pov did right was come for Wlads neck, he put on pressure early, where as Haye spent the first 3 rounds trying to figure out Wlad You could see genuine panic in Wlad from round 1, thus he started clinching and leaning more so than ever He doesn't like pressure, he needs his opponents to let him breathe and stay far away. Boxers need a Tyson like attitude, soon as the bell rings attack, first 5 rounds are ur best chance to floor him

That is why Wladimir has looked a monster; his opposition. Its easy to look like your stamina is amazing when opponents aren't making you miss or giving you anything to think about. Povetkin made Wlad work and was landing his own shots - Wladimir was blowing hard after 3 and his shots had very little on. Wladimir does not like angles. He likes guys who stand in front of him, upright & let him jab them in the face all night. Sorry but nothing is changing my mind that Wladimir is a product of a weak era. Not saying he isn't a damn good HW but hes being made to look superhuman almost because of how poor these guys of today are. Very true I'm still wondering why these boxers keep trying the same tried gameplan over and over again. Wlad is beatable it'll take someone who can box from mid range and come from angles and go for his body. Haye wasted his opportunity, he had all the tools, but came with the wrong game plan and gave Wlad way to much respect. I'm not sure who else could cause Wlad problems, Rakhim maybe, Haye in a rematch, I know u wont agree but possibly Fury, just simply because he stands a punchers chance and wont show Wlad any respect. Chisora fights in straight lines, and he wont be able to get hos body shots off without being clinched, he'll spend the entire fight trying to get up close. The jab will eventually break him down Pulev may stand a chance Wilder is a unknown entity and he respects Wlad to much, and also hasn't been with anyone noteworthy, I don't think he even wants it

I agree with you that Wlad is not shot, but what's this thing about Fury's 'inside fighting'? I saw it in other threads as well, and was baffled by it. Inside or outside, Fury is garbage imo. He has size and OK (though not great) power but very little else. Fury is still garbage but he is young and how good is Wlad? Lets be honest about Sam Peter, a guy who he went tooth and nail with. Peter was pretty much garbage at that time. The lack of movement is imo what discerns the quality of the division today. Very few of these guys can move, if they could they would avoid Wlad's jab and fight inside. Thats what skills are for. A guy like James Toney could probably do that tomorrow. Fury is not that good but could move enough to do this. So could Chisora or Haye. Wlad has not fought anyone who can move. Look at the difference between Vitali and Wlad's fight with Peter for proof. Vitali moves a lot better.

He did look terrible but not that terrible

lol talk about an overreaction. Look, apart from Tyson Fury, who has the size and inside game capable of challenging Wlad, and Pulev who has a nice quick jab and is also big, The other HW's are still nowhere near his level. Just look at Povetkin, he had no answer to getting held and clinched up. You can blame that on Wlad, but at some point Povetkin had to adjust. Where were the uppercuts? where were the hooks to the body? Everytime he got clinched up he waited for the referee to separate them with doing any damage. I agree with you that Wlad is not shot, but what's this thing about Fury's 'inside fighting'? I saw it in other threads as well, and was baffled by it. Inside or outside, Fury is garbage imo. He has size and OK (though not great) power but very little else.

Its harsh as hes at the end of his career, hes aging and its inevitable but he is not as good as I thought he was. He had no answers but to grab & lean. He didn't look for any other answers. The clinching was unnecessary. Povetkin was no threat at all, in any point of the fight. Not sure I agree, he was dangerous in the first few rounds and he did connect on Wlad, he was marked up post-fight.

It's a fair point, against Peter I & Brewster I he looked gassed as hell. If you can take his shots for awhile and keep pressuring him, he cracks.

That is why Wladimir has looked a monster; his opposition. Its easy to look like your stamina is amazing when opponents aren't making you miss or giving you anything to think about. Povetkin made Wlad work and was landing his own shots - Wladimir was blowing hard after 3 and his shots had very little on. Wladimir does not like angles. He likes guys who stand in front of him, upright & let him jab them in the face all night. Sorry but nothing is changing my mind that Wladimir is a product of a weak era. Not saying he isn't a damn good HW but hes being made to look superhuman almost because of how poor these guys of today are.

Povetkin had no answers either. Blame both of them. Wlad won, end of story. Don't judge him from one poor performance, as others pointed out he's looked excellent recently except the Pov fight. I want to see him fight Fury and Wilder. There is 10 other HWs who'd look excellent against the sh1t hes faced lately. Wach & Pianeta had nothing, they're just big guys who had undefeated records that was as padded as possible. Neither one of them even attempted to do a single thing.

I mean HWs of the past. He still beats everyone out there at the minute He is well on the slide in my eyes and I can't feel his reign has been attributed against bums he has massive advantages over coupled with the fact they're simply sh1t to start with and fight to his strengths. Wladimir is timid. Hes still the same fighter hes just lucky there isn't a decent explosive HW to capitalise If Haye can land a rematch and fight not so negatively, now saying he will but he can beat Wladimir. I see that now. I think hes very good at what he does but hes fought a load of timid bums there for a pay cheque and cruiserweights contempt on shelling up and getting props for bravery (being a punchbag)

Povetkin had no answers either. Blame both of them. Wlad won, end of story. Don't judge him from one poor performance, as others pointed out he's looked excellent recently except the Pov fight. I want to see him fight Fury and Wilder.

He's declined since the Haye bout. It's hard to tell due to quality of his opposition; Pianeta, Wach etc. He looked far quicker on his feet and more explosive against Haye than Povetkin.

What the f, Dan? He's not shot. It probably had something to do with fighting 'away' from home. Also, let's be real, Povetkin was of greater danger than Wach and Mormeck. I like that Wlad fights regularly, but going from can to contender isn't ideal. Who knows what went on in camp, as well? I agree with the poster above, he needs a new trainer. Banks will expedite his downfall.