The only significant punch that Chagaev landed was a left hand that landed after the bell. One foul, that's it. Total domination. Wlad has never looked better.
Dwid, Wlad's inoculated, so he wouldn't contract the disease. The only concern would be people ringside, not Wlad.
As for popularity, Wlad and Vitali would be much more popular in America if they were American, particularly, Irish American or Italian American fighting out of NYC. Boxing is very tribal, fight fans root for their own. There just aren't enough "Ukrainian Americans" to root for him here, and white fight fans, in general, are too "deracialized" (is that a word? lol) to root for a white fighter who isn't from their country or city (like Pavlik,) or who doesn't share their nationality (Irish, Italian, Polish, etc.) [/QUOTE)
Yes, the Klitschko brothers would be more popular in this country if they were Irish or Italian Americans from New York. Being based in New York was an advantage for Cooney (and Mike Tyson, for that matter). They would have gotten more credit if they had won smashing victories over someone like Tyson or Holyfield.
Fighters from behind the Iron Curtain began to come to America around 1990, before the Soviet Union fell. A boxing magazine at the time had an article that said there would be fights like Rocky IV or the "Holmes-Cooney White Hope hysteria."
I never read anything by a boxing writer predicting that Eastern European fighters would bring back the white heavyweight champion. Sports media people in this country did not see it coming.
