The same Wilder except he'd been in three grueling wars, was knocked the **** out twice, and much much older. Oh wait, I forgot Wilder's not allowed any excuses. Only the people he beat are, to downplay his wins against them.
There might be close to a 90 lbs weight difference in this one, crazy to think about. Wilder is still dangerous, but the smart money is on Zhang who will probably have a big edge in durability while hitting just as hard as Wilder.
Wilder isn't shot or even that much past prime. His timing was immaculate against Sugar Robert Helenius. No one has wasted SRH like that, everytime SRH has been stopped he has been gassed to smithereens.
I suspect they are talking about Wilder-Anderson purely to keep Anderson focused, believing that they have big fights lined up for him in short order and want him to become the face of American HW boxing. There's no way it happens in a few months though, unless Wilder beats Zhang by early KO. And even this assumes that they don't want Wilder to fight Joshua if he beats Zhang in that manner, preferring Joshua to fight the winner of Hrgovic-Dubois for a belt in what would be a far smaller fight title aside.
Generally agree... Against journeymen and the odd gatekeeper (like Ortiz, Helenius, Breazeale) he's always looked destructive - it's the genuine legit contenders who can fight a plan that exposes his extremely limited ring IQ and fundamentals where he comes badly unstuck. When he starts looking shot against the level of opponents he fought 99% of his career against, it's fair to say he's shot... Until then, it's fair to assume he's declined a bit through age, but it's also fair to assume that Parker and Fury were just levels above where he could compete.
Question for the board. How many fighters have you ever seen recover from being mentally shot, as in afraid to get hit? I'm not talking about guys who were defensive their entire careers. Wilder's performance against Parker reminded me of Morales in the rubber match against Pacquiao. He was just done. I think the same is true with Deontay. He has the power still but physically he's diminished and, more than anything, he doesn't have the fire or willingness to get hit anymore. Zhang early KO is the bet here
