Pianeta is the same calibre as Wlad's three last opponents, Mormeck, Thompson and Wach. That is, a guy who isn't dangerous at all and can't punch. Pianeta is a big guy with useful technique but that is all. Another easy win for Wlad here, the only hope is that he is as aggressive as he was against Wach last time out. Pianeta defeated Botha and McCall last year though. Merely 15 years ago both would have been good achievements, so perhaps the era is just wrong for Pianeta (I am kidding, bwj :Thumbs:)
Mormeck was a gimme so he could get his 50th KO after Haye spent all night running on broken feet. Who did Tito fight after the shambles of the De La Hoya fight? Saaul Mamby or something. When guys like Price are flopping over against Thompson, you cannot fault Wlad for destroying him. Wlad improved on his earlier performance. Wach was dangerous enough. Applied plenty of pressure, showed a granite jaw and let his hands go, hurting Wlad. He just didn't have the finesse or experience to follow up. The problem is not who Wlad is fighting. The problem is who is fighting who while waiting to get a fight with Wlad. Think about it, the Stiverne vs Arreola fight is something we could do with more of it. But the only reason they fought is to get a crack at the WBC title. Haye is fighting Charr. Again....it is Klitschko-Related. None of these goons want to fight for the sake of it.
I am not blaming Wlad for not making interesting fights since, as you say, there are very few credible opponents out there and the best ones rather wait for their opportunity than try to earn one, or refuse to fight all together. Still the fact is that Pianeta is fourth guy in row who is not very good and offers minimal threat
Its shocking how unwilling these goons are to fight one another, preferring complete inactivity over potentially 50-50 fights, how long was it that Arreola last fight before Stiverne?
There is "minimal threat" because in some cases, Wlad is just a lot fucking better. Bear in mind, Ali fought guys who were "minimal threat", Louis fought them on a monthly basis. When Holmes was champion, just about fucking everybody was a maximal threat to Holmes title bar the guys he eventually became infamous for losing to. And yet Holmes "legacy" is still up for debate. It's a hard call. There are other issues, like Chisora {who at that point might have made it interesting} getting injured and then fighting Vitali instead in a very decent affair.......or Vitali hoovering up guys like Arreola, Adamek, Williams, again all of whom might have made it interesting. The contenders are there, but the reason there is no interest is because they aren't fighting each other, or at least with the regularity needed to generate interest. Motion creates emotion. What has happened to Helenius? Fury is fighting Cunningham and won't fight Price. Price gets stopped by Thompson but to his credit is rematching him. Chisora seems shot, Haye is in the Klitschko Sweepstakes waiting for his number to come up. With Haye, Price, Fury, the dregs of Chisora, you have the makings of a decent elimination tournament that would attract a lot of attention. But they won't fight. And then you have guys like Towers, Joshua and the other Fury coming up. Will they make the fights then? Probably not.
Again, this is obvious and it isn't Wlad's fault. It is just that there is no more reason to get excited about this fight than Larry Holmes' defense against Scott Frank or Ali facing Jean Pierre Coopman. Wlad is too good for anyone at this moment but that doesn't change the fact that even though Pianeta is not fat, instead he looks pretty hot, he still is a slow-moving, simple jab pole without a punch who has zero good wins on his record. Heck, his best result is a draw against Sosnowski, whose challenge against Vitali was rather embarrassing
So who should he be fighting? The reality is, he's beat most everyone who can be considered decent already. Who's left?
The terriblest opponents are proven terrible. At least with undefeated guys you get one checkmark on the list of acceptability: In order of importance, but subject to exceptions, dominant champs should be fighting: 1. Other titlists 2. Consensus #1 challengers 3. Mandatories 4. Undefeateds 5. Money opponents Imo, I'd rather watch a champ like Wlad fight an undefeated like Pianeta than fight some guy like Arreola or Stiverne who sneaks in as a mandatory. When you clean out a division, you don't want some undefeated guy taking over and being able to claim that you ducked him. For example, see Froch vs Calzaghe which was only stunted because of Ward.
Pianeta got a draw against Sosnowski, who got battered by Martin Rogan who lost to Audley Harrison in Prizefighter.
HOw come stiverne sneaked in as a mandantory. Beating Austin and Areola in this age make you more deserving of a title shot than 90% of the clown getting one