Reply #6: Wow, Teddy Atlas thinks Ibragimov can beat Klitschko

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

Apparently, he thinks that Ibragimov can be deceptively fast, mobile, and smart enough to know how to beat Wlad. I watched a replay of the Klitschko/Williamson fight today on ESPN and I again noticed how Wlad sometimes leans in and often has a lot of separation of his left hand from his body. Sometimes he just hangs it out there. I don't know if there's something there that can be exploited but maybe a right uppercut could work (if the opponent can get close enough). I really respect Teddy Atlas but I just wonder if he's gone out on a pretty slim limb here.

On the other hand, Dan Raphael who is ESPN's supposed fight guru thinks that Klitschko will win. I don't know if you follow Dan Raphael's fight coverage of big fights, but his scorecards are usually wrong, quite wrong. Even when Raphael watches the same fights that the judges watch (Raphael does online round-by-round coverage of big PPV fights for those who can't afford to buy them) he tends to shade his scoring for the favorite and I often just have to shake my head at his scoring. He's far less accurate than Harold Lederman in my opinion.

Maybe Teddy Atlas waited to see how Raphael predicts the fight and, knowing how wrong he usually is, went with the other guy.