Wlad-Haye, July 2nd

[hagler04]

Don't mean to split hairs, but I will for a few seconds...

Say what you will about Wlad losing to Purrity, Sanders or Brewster but Peter was seen as more than a legit threat at the time & to Wlad's credit he weathered the storm and ultimately outpointed while hurting him pretty badly by the end. Peter may have not had the speed of Sanders or even Brewster but what he lacked in speed he made up in raw, brute strength.
Peter is a barrel chested guy who would never look like a Holyfield no matter how much he worked out or took drugs.
Back when Peter fought Wlad, at least one could see the outline of Peter's abs on his distended midsection.

It's easy to rip Peter apart now after Vitali essentially ended his career but in the case of Wlad, the Peter fight is one of the higher points of his career.
My point being in splitting these fine hairs is that if you are going to rip on Wlad in any regard, the Peter fight isn't helping the case.
Wlad may not be my favorite boxer out there but I try to give the guy at least a shred of respect for what he's carved out for himself and I have a problem with ripping on the win over Peter just because big bro destroyed him & was never the same since.
Now back to our scheduled programming....

Sorry, but many including myself thought Peter sucked long before the Vitali beatdown. He showed a complete lack of some basic skills and poor conditioning fighting Wlad, a 38 year old Toney made him look like a goofball their first fight, he got smacked around by McCline before Jameel completly gassed out and never got a 2nd wind, he was getting outboxed by old man Maskaev before he caught up to a guy with a plethora of injuries who had serious chin issues in his prime which had been 10 years earlier . . yeah Wlad showed some resolve in getting up vs Peter and grabbing him incessantly to survive, but Peter is perhaps a tinge better than a Lionel Butler level fighter. Nothing to hang a legacy on. The hype Peter got just showed how far the HW division had and has fallen . . .

[diggity]

Agreed on those points hags.
I'm not saying the guy was ever touted as the next long-time reigning champ, just that he was viewed as a legit threat to Wlad at the time because of Peter's path to that fight and even more so because of Wlad's weaknesses.
He wasn't just some fat nobody & posed a definite threat to Wlad back then.

[jlupi]

Wlad doesn't get enough credit for Peter I. I agree. He was seriously hurt in the 10th and came on big in the last two.>>>>>

He survived because peter sucks/sucked and could not follow up. Peter at his best a slightly more skilled tank abbott of boxing.

[Wladimir Klitschko Sucks]

Davyrall Williamson was outslicking Wlad, knocking him down and pasting him all over the ring when Wlad quit in his corner. Should of been a TKO win for Williamson,




WKS

[Kid Dynamite]

Don't mean to split hairs, but I will for a few seconds...

Say what you will about Wlad losing to Purrity, Sanders or Brewster but Peter was seen as more than a legit threat at the time & to Wlad's credit he weathered the storm and ultimately outpointed while hurting him pretty badly by the end. Peter may have not had the speed of Sanders or even Brewster but what he lacked in speed he made up in raw, brute strength.
Peter is a barrel chested guy who would never look like a Holyfield no matter how much he worked out or took drugs.
Back when Peter fought Wlad, at least one could see the outline of Peter's abs on his distended midsection.

It's easy to rip Peter apart now after Vitali essentially ended his career but in the case of Wlad, the Peter fight is one of the higher points of his career.
My point being in splitting these fine hairs is that if you are going to rip on Wlad in any regard, the Peter fight isn't helping the case.
Wlad may not be my favorite boxer out there but I try to give the guy at least a shred of respect for what he's carved out for himself and I have a problem with ripping on the win over Peter just because big bro destroyed him & was never the same since.
Now back to our scheduled programming....

I wasnt talking about how good or bad Peter was as a fighter or how much credit or lack of credit Wlad gets. I was talking about Wlads chin and how crazy it is to draw comparisions to Ali's career....

[diggity]

Well Ali he ain't...

[Theo Netherland]

Davyrall Williamson was outslicking Wlad, knocking him down and pasting him all over the ring when Wlad quit in his corner. Should of been a TKO win for Williamson,

Just saw the fight. I had Klit winning like two of three judges did. And I believe it was a good fight. Klitschko and Williamson both fought with a positive attitude. Klitschko didn’t quit in his corner, the doctor stopped it. And one more thing, you can’t say Klit was boring.

[walshb]

The fact you need this explained to you speaks volumes!Also, how was Thompson 'smaller' than Haye?!

Eh, they may have weighed in at similar weights, but Haye is the bigger man. About three inches taller too. Carl was close to 40, well past his best days.

And, why the need to be so patronising in your posts? Bit strange. I only asked a simple quetion originally. You seem always to be quite angered, and your responses quite smarmy. Like it's life and death. Only a chat site we're on.

If Khan meets Morales and punches himself out then we can compare.

[Overhand_Right]

I'm psychotic!

[mrbig1]

I don't think Wlad loves boxing anymore. He has been champion for a long time. It looks to me he has loss that fire he use to have. He lives in Beverly hills for crying out loud. He also dated a movie star. He's done. Haye life depends on this fight. A loss and he'll become a joke. Haye hand speed and power spells real trouble for Wlad. Haye has to find his prefect range to land his power shots and not get tied up by Wlad. He's going to make Wlad work. Haye by 3 round KO.

[Crold1]

Nice preview show from Sky:

Pt. 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ad-BBY3vqA
Pt. 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKD10hXcv1s

[Theo Netherland]

[KOJOE90]

Funny that both fighters who are title holders have to go to the old "you will see a different (fill in the blank) come fight time" to sell the fight. I guess they realize that nobody is very excited about them as individual fighters.

Not sure I can agree with you on the above point, Haye is one of the very few active UK fighters who have crossover appeal in the UK and Wlad is huge in Germany and the Ukraine.

[Kid Dynamite]

Not sure I can agree with you on the above point, Haye is one of the very few active UK fighters who have crossover appeal in the UK and Wlad is huge in Germany and the Ukraine.

You are correct about that. I was speaking as a fight fan in the U.S. I guess I was being a bit ethnocentric with my comment. In the U.S. both of these guys can't draw. People here just flat gave up on Wlad.

Haye doesnt really have any crossover appeal in the US. Not many know him. I was actually part of a charity function a few months ago where I donated a glove signed by David Haye. With over 400 people at this event not one bid was put on the glove as nobody knew who he was.

[HE Grant]

Forgive me if this has been posted but I have been very out of it ...

The fight is tomorrow night ( 7/2 ) in Germany ... is it airing in the US, if so where and what time ... ? I will try to avoid an event result from the likely earlier German time of event .. any feedback is appreciated ..

Thanks.

[Adeyinka]

Given all the aborted attempts at making bouts between Haye and either Klitschko, I said that I would not get excited about this fight until both men stepped into the ring. Well it's near enough now to let the sense of anticipation grow:

LISTEN to a preview the bout on China Radio International (CRI) Sports with some contributions from me:

http://english.cri.cn/8046/2011/07/01/2741s645908.htm

ARTICLE I composed on the bout geared towards what I understand is a large and growing body of fans in China:

http://english.cri.cn/8046/2011/06/29/2541s645362.htm

PS:
I was surprised that after all his pre-fight verbosity against Haye's stablemate George Groves, James DeGale did not crawl across the ring, kiss his feet and take the next jet out of the UK when he lost. Haye's talked a lot and he better win as I can see no where for him to go if he suffers a devastating (non-controversial) loss...

[Kid Dynamite]

Fight airs 7/2 at 4:45PM ET/1:45PM PT on HBO

[Kid Dynamite]

Weights are in..

Klitschko 242.6, Haye 212.8

Weigh in video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-IezKRfLF8

[KOJOE90]

Haye looks ripped, relaxed and ready to rumble!!!

[jlupi]

Nice to see 2 HWs in shape

[HE Grant]

Thank you.

[Overhand_Right]

One of the best heavyweight title fight weigh ins I've seen in years. And Vitali looks like he wants to KILL Haye.

The first time we've seen two in-shape heavyweights contesting the heavyweight title since..... er....... Lewis/Tyson?

I'm very excited about this fight - if you cannot get up for THIS fight, with all the intangibles involved, you must be American or seriously jaded or both.

[HE Grant]

I honestly have no idea what Haye did to merit this sort of attention .. to me this is the biggest b.s. of a superfight ... in the HTH w Kellerman Klit was dead on when he praised Haye for talking himself into a big payday based on nothing but his mouth ... I imagine that since Wlad's chin is weak anything can happen but I'd be really surprised to see Haye do anything ... I se a one sided beating administered from Wlad but who knows ...

[hagler04]

I agree. Haye has a chance but he has sloppy technique, a porous defense, and excels when guys come to him, which won't be happening in this fight. I favor Klitschko here by KO. Haye hasn't fought much at HW and I was not impressed with his fights vs Ruiz, Valuev, Harrison etc.

Not surprised that our English friends on the board are very excited though. Looking at the well-produced specials and media stories produced in the UK, the hype machine there is really out of control. Just remember you all thought Haye-Harrison was going to be a tear-up and it was one of the most boring 3 round fights in history.

The one positive I can see is that Haye has talked so much sh^& leading up to this, I can't imagine him at some point in this fight not going for broke. If he stinks out the joint he'll bear a mark of shame the rest of his life and he'll have to move out the UK pronto . . it will be Joe Bugner syndrome all over again (and poor Joe pre-Cooper wasn't even a talker like Haye, he was just the victim of bad timing)

Hope I'm wrong. What I'm really dreading will be all of the talk of Klitschko "establishing his place among the All-Time Greats" should he win, even though Haye simply promoted/slickly manouvred his way into this position and his name on a ledger shouldn't solidify anything . .

[sr71ko]

To bad that neither Joe Mesi or Tommy Morrison are around. Either one of those guys could be dangerous against Wlad. If Wlad gets by David Haye, Wlad vs. an in shape Arreola( I know. Arreola and in shape is asking for a lot. LOL)? Like I said before... someone please wake me up when one kayos one or both Klits. I dream to be Klit free.

[Ron Lipton]

That 4:45PM is absolutely the live broadcast correct???

[Crold1]

That 4:45PM is absolutely the live broadcast correct???

Yup. HBO, EST. Like the old days.

[rocky111]

I was neutral as to who wins, but seeing and hearing the effeminine fans from england screaming and acting like teenaged girls made me sick. What happened to the old fashioned gentlemanly manly englishman? Where did these jerks come from? The Klitchkos acted like men and didnt respond to that idiotic behavior. If this is what a liberated society produces I got to back off. Give me a Klitchko vic just to disapoint these goofs. BUT I always compare Wlad to Tommy Hearns. Great skills, lots of heart, but a glass chin. Anything can happen with dice like that.

[Overhand_Right]

I'd like to 'think' travelling British sports fans are NOT indicative of regular English men. They're a bunch of unintelligent, illiterate louts, primarily football fans with their lewd football chants, who travel for a piss up and scream very loudly for a boxer they probably in truth don't know much about -- absolutely NOTHING like rugby crowds, tennis crowds, athletics etc.

The German audience are such a classy type, suited up, sipping champagne, politely watching the fights, I absolutely shudder to think how these travelling thugs are going to represent us tonight -- I expect horrendous chants about Hitler, jeering the German national anthem, generally disgracing us as they always do with their Neanderthal ways. Very sad men, who probably don't have much of a life or career outside of their aggressive football fixation.

[KOJOE90]

I'd like to 'think' travelling British sports fans are NOT indicative of regular English men. They're a bunch of unintelligent, illiterate louts, primarily football fans with their lewd football chants, who travel for a piss up and scream very loudly for a boxer they probably in truth don't know much about -- absolutely NOTHING like rugby crowds, tennis crowds, athletics etc.

The German audience are such a classy type, suited up, sipping champagne, politely watching the fights, I absolutely shudder to think how these travelling thugs are going to represent us tonight -- I expect horrendous chants about Hitler, jeering the German national anthem, generally disgracing us as they always do with their Neanderthal ways. Very sad men, who probably don't have much of a life or career outside of their aggressive football fixation.

Post of the day, well said.