loss to IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua than he would have received had he won the fight on April 29. A rematch between Wladimir and Joshua is expected to take place before the end of the year. Whether Wladimir can learn from the bumbling mistakes he made in the first fight with big Joshua is what a lot of boxing fans would like to know.
Right now, Wladimir is patting himself on the back, as if he did a great job. That’s not good news. If Wladimir is going to glorify his loss to Joshua by thinking it was a good thing, then that’s the first step towards journeyman status. If you’re a winner, you’re not going to think it’s swell to lose. You’re going to look at what you did wrong and then correct the mistakes in the rematch. It would be a good idea for Wladimir to do that. If I were Wladimir, I’d have two or three trainers along with Vitali go over the video of his loss to Joshua to make sure he doesn’t make the mistakes again.
Wladimir entered the ring for the Joshua fighting being booed by the large pro-Joshua fight at Wembley Stadium in London, England. After putting Joshua down on the canvas in round 6 and schooling him from rounds 6-10, Wladimir won over a lot of boxing fans. All he did was dominate a tired and slow looking Joshua, exposing him as a fighter with poor stamina, dreadful mobility and little in the way of defensive skills.
The only reason Wladimir lost the fight was because of his decision to fight cautiously by boxing after he had Joshua gassed out and hurt in the 6th. It was a strange decision on Wladimir’s part to not try and finish off Joshua, because he would have been finished off if it had been Wladimir’s brother Vitali Klitschko inside the ring on the night. Even at 45, Vitali likely would have knocked out Joshua if he’d been inside the ring instead of Wladimir. At the very least, Vitali would have had the presence of mind to know that he had to get Joshua out of there right away instead of twiddling his thumbs, messing about, and hoping the fight would go the distance.
“Joshua had a clear home advantage as an Englishman. But as I left the ring again, I got goosebumps. Tens of thousands of people who had wanted me to be defeated were applauding me,” said Wladimir via skysports.com. “I experienced enthusiasm, encouragement and respect: for me, my performance, my fair fight and my boxing as a whole. I cannot wish for anything better.”
Wladimir is making a mistake by being satisfied with his loss. That’s the worst thing you can do as a fighter. Wladimir should be beating himself and kicking himself in the back side for his failure to go for the kill in rounds 6 through 10. If Wladimir still had the late great trainer Emanuel Steward in his corner, I think he would have knocked Joshua out on April 29 after getting him hurt. Steward would have made sure that Wladimir jumped on Joshua to finish him off, because he understood what a bad mistake it would be to leave the tired Joshua out there to give him a chance to catch a second wind.
Wladimir should enough himself not to let his opponents hang around once you’ve got them hurt, but that’s the way he fights though. Look at Wladimir’s fights against Alexander Povetkin and Mariusz Wach. He had both guys hurt and readyh to be knocked out in those fights. So what did Wladimir do? He backed off and played it safe and let them go the full 12 rounds. The difference is those fighters were too limited to beat Wladimir. Joshua was extremely limited too, but he has a good uppercut that he likes to throw from the inside.
Wladimir made the mistake of trying to get in close to clinch Joshua, and he paid the price. Wladimir should have known that Joshua was too slow and over-muscled to land anything from the outside, so his only chance of winning was if Wladimir came inside so he could land an uppercut. Talk about your mistakes.
“In defeat, I achieved much greater success than I would have had I won. Fans and sports enthusiasts worldwide are celebrating my performance and showing me their appreciation. Even my opponent expressed his respect for me,” said Wladimir.
See what I mean. Wladimir doesn’t seem to be taking his loss hard. He’s acting like he’s happy. I hate to say this, but you can’t say whether a loss is a good thing unless you can prove that you’ve learned from the mistake. Right now, Wladimir is just flapping his gums. Heck, any fighter can start spouting off at the mouth after they’ve been knocked out, saying, they achieved great success because they lost the fight.
Wladimir can’t say that because he hasn’t proven that it was a great gift that he received in losing to Joshua. The only time that Joshua can say that he achieved something good out of the loss is if he comes back and doesn’t repeat the same mistakes in the rematch with Joshua.
These are the things that Wladimir has to fix in the rematch with Joshua:
– Don’t stand close to Joshua. It would be a big mistake for Wladimir to get near enough for Joshua to hit him with one of his big uppercuts. Believe me, Joshua will now be thinking uppercuts all the way in the rematch with Wladimir. Joshua found success with his uppercuts, so he’ll be looking to use that punch again and again in the rematch. Wladimir can take the uppercut away from Joshua by staying on the outside and NEVER coming in close.
– Don’t clinch
– Unload on Joshua with everything you’ve got once you’ve got him hurt. Don’t let him recover because he’s too dangerous to be allowed to get his second wind.
– Don’t stand stationary in front of Joshua. You must hit and move for 12 rounds continuous. Joshua is slow on his feet because he’s like a body builder. Joshua won’t be able to catch Wladimir as long as he moves. Wladimir must jab Joshua silly, close both of his eyes, and then finish him off.
This can be an easy fight for Wladimir as long as he fixes the mistakes he made in the first Joshua fight. Wladimir needs to forget about all the adulation he’s getting from the boxing public. Wladimir must forget about the fans and stop seeing his loss to Joshua as good news. It wasn’t good for Wladimir’s career, because it only reinforced the perception that he can’t take a punch without dropping to the canvas.
If Wladimir can’t take a punch, which appears to be the case, then he needs to make sure he works extra hard to make sure he makes zero mistakes in the rematch with Joshua. How does Wladimir do that? He does it by going over the video of his loss to Joshua and fixes the mistakes one by one. I already know what Wladimir did wrong. It would be so easy to fix ALL of the mistakes that Wladimir made against Joshua so that he could totally school in the rematch.
Unfortunately, I have no faith in Wladimir that he would erase those mistakes. I think Wladimir will do the same things he did in the first fight when he gets inside the ring with Joshua next time. It’s too bad, because a good fighter like Wladimir’s promoter Vitali Klitschko would make sure he didn’t make the same mistakes twice. But that’s the difference between Vitali and Wladimir. Vitali was good at learning from his past fights. I don’t think Wladimir can learn from the flaws he made.