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All this talk about Wlad firming his hold on the division and Thompson making a brave fight of it smack of people desperate for one of two things:
1). To maintain that the Heavyweight division isnt in very poor shape at the moment.
2). To dream that the US heavyweight division isnt in worse shape than its been in for a LONG time.
Let me preface this by saying that I like both Wlad and Vitali. That I like them as boxers and as people. I also like the US as a boxing community, most of my favourite boxers have been American and probably always will be.
HOWEVER, I'm sorry to disagree with many of the assessment from yesterday, but it was a terrible fight from two amatuerish and somewhat cowardly fighters. Wlad won clearly and comfortably, but looked dreadful. Open to too many punches, with nothing approaching punching combinations, utterly fearful of everything coming back and frankly ANYONE who criticises Hatton for holding should slam Wlad. Any time he moved into short range, he smothered, clinches and did absolutely NO in-work whatsoever (which at least Hatton did). Considering how concerned he was about taking any punches at all, his defense should've been much stronger. Thompson was slow, lumbering and precitable, yet he still gave Wlad some scares from time to time and Wlad looked terrible with his foot movement.
Thompson on the other hand was utterly ****. The fact that he 'hung' with Wlad for the first few rounds, was more due to Wlad's failings than any great offensive skills of his own. Yes Wlad landed some good punches and Thompson took them well, demonstrating a very solid chin...But that brings me to my last point.
Call it all you want, but that was NOT a knock out. For the last two rounds, Tony was looking for any opportunity to get out of that fight. Falling down and wincing about a bad leg...his whole body language during the rounds and in the corner was of a man resigned to defeat. He waited for any opportunity to take a decent punch and then he took the easy way out. Remember that this is a guy who took much harder punches within the fight and never looked rocked. Yet you could tell he was waiting for a half-clean punch to come in so that he could hit the deck, look for 7 seconds like he was knocked clean out and then desperately 'struggle' to his feet to try and maintain some kind of fighting dignity. He would've gotten more respect from me if he'd quit in his corner like he blatantly wanted to.
Not impressive all around. Cant see how anyone would see it any other way. Respect for Wlad for doing the hardest thing to do in boxing (ie win), but I want to see much more from him in future.
1). To maintain that the Heavyweight division isnt in very poor shape at the moment.
2). To dream that the US heavyweight division isnt in worse shape than its been in for a LONG time.
Let me preface this by saying that I like both Wlad and Vitali. That I like them as boxers and as people. I also like the US as a boxing community, most of my favourite boxers have been American and probably always will be.
HOWEVER, I'm sorry to disagree with many of the assessment from yesterday, but it was a terrible fight from two amatuerish and somewhat cowardly fighters. Wlad won clearly and comfortably, but looked dreadful. Open to too many punches, with nothing approaching punching combinations, utterly fearful of everything coming back and frankly ANYONE who criticises Hatton for holding should slam Wlad. Any time he moved into short range, he smothered, clinches and did absolutely NO in-work whatsoever (which at least Hatton did). Considering how concerned he was about taking any punches at all, his defense should've been much stronger. Thompson was slow, lumbering and precitable, yet he still gave Wlad some scares from time to time and Wlad looked terrible with his foot movement.
Thompson on the other hand was utterly ****. The fact that he 'hung' with Wlad for the first few rounds, was more due to Wlad's failings than any great offensive skills of his own. Yes Wlad landed some good punches and Thompson took them well, demonstrating a very solid chin...But that brings me to my last point.
Call it all you want, but that was NOT a knock out. For the last two rounds, Tony was looking for any opportunity to get out of that fight. Falling down and wincing about a bad leg...his whole body language during the rounds and in the corner was of a man resigned to defeat. He waited for any opportunity to take a decent punch and then he took the easy way out. Remember that this is a guy who took much harder punches within the fight and never looked rocked. Yet you could tell he was waiting for a half-clean punch to come in so that he could hit the deck, look for 7 seconds like he was knocked clean out and then desperately 'struggle' to his feet to try and maintain some kind of fighting dignity. He would've gotten more respect from me if he'd quit in his corner like he blatantly wanted to.
Not impressive all around. Cant see how anyone would see it any other way. Respect for Wlad for doing the hardest thing to do in boxing (ie win), but I want to see much more from him in future.
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