BoxRec

Riddick Blowe wrote: Nope, never put so much 'stock in beating hall of famers', just argued for a better overall resume. And nope, never said his resume was the ONLY evidence he would crush Wlad, so congrats on putting more words in my mouth. There are other reasons...technique, vastly superior arsenal, ringcraft, better heart/chin...Records are just one way of assessing head to head matchups. But you don't seem to put any 'stock' in that at all, so each to their own.

I didn't say you said it was the only evidence. I simply feel you put far too much stock in it. You also claimed previously Wlad has never beaten a top heavyweight which is, well, asinine at best.

Wlad has more power, more heart, better at making his opponent fight his style of fight, better jab, and faster hands. Lewis had a much better punch arsenal, better punch resistance (but not by much), handled pressure much better, and seemed more mature in the ring. It would be a great fight. I'd favor Lewis, but it's close.

Resumes don't really tell me that Lewis beats Wlad. It kind of comes down to a couple of points.

Wlad likes to hold on the inside
Lewis is a big bastard with an excellent inside game.

And that's it, new improved Wlad is too conservative to go after Lewis and would get busted up. Wlad cheats a bit by excessive holding to protect himself, Lewis cheats a bit by grabbing your head and slamming it down into his uppercut to try and knock you out. Their whole mindsets are completely different when fighting up close.

I like Wlad, but for me this is a bad style matchup for him. I think there are some top 20 all time great heavyweights that I'd like his chances against but Lewis isn't one of them.

Lenny wrote:
And that's it, new improved Wlad is too conservative to go after Lewis and would get busted up.

Yeah this is how I see it. Which is partly why I always raise the question of just how new and improved Wlad would look vs an actual hungry, aggressive live body, and why I think Corrie would still have knocked out the new Wlad, just later in the fight.

The best guy who showed some ambition since Wlad's style change was Povetkin, and behold, here comes the Octopus! Who knows what would have happened if Povetkin had been allowed to work on the inside as he should have, because Wlad, as usual, was clueless there. Can you imagine what Lewis would have done to Povetkin. Jesus.

Anyway back to the thread title.

Uh, no.

As soon as I saw it was Mickey Vann's opinion I stopped reading, this is the man who's no doubt completely honest judgement led to a drawn scorecard in the Whittaker- Chavez fight, enough said.