Why has Deontay achieved so little?

He's technically very flawed and hasn't attempted very much.

 

List out the heavyweights of the last 25 years who have beaten two top five contenders or more.

 

Wilder's career took a bad turn by not fighting Wladimir Klitschko.

I remember a few interviews around 2013 / 2014 where Wlad was asked about Wilder, and he pretty much dismissed the notion of them fighting. It was obvious they had a gentleman's agreement not to fight.

Around that time it seemed to make perfect sense. Wilder beating Wlad would have seen the baton passed and made him a superstar overnight. Instead they decided the better way (less risk) would be to let Wlad retire and Wilder make his name the 'slower' way. I just don't think team Wilder ever intended it to be this slow..

 

Absolutely Spot On.

 

This. I think Wilder's team has done wonders with him. His original trainer and manager Jay Deas, who is still with him was smart enough to bring in other management and trainers to help develop Wilder once he became a pro. Wilder has made good money and has developed very well as a fighter over his 40 pro fights.

Wilder like Foreman had very limited amateur experience and needed more fights as a pro before jumping in with elite competition.

Comparison between Wilder and Foreman
Wilder Amateur Record: 30-5
Foreman Amateur Record: 22-4

Wilder's pro experience when challenging for World Title: 32-0
Foreman's pro experience when challenging for World Title: 37-0

Here is an interview with Russ Anber in 2012, who is one of Wilder's trainers talking about why he took his time with Wilder rather than throwing him in with elite competition when Wilder was 25-0.

Anber politely pointed out the media’s impatience and hypocrisy in demanding so much from a fighter who has had relatively little experience.

“I have to be frank. I am a little disappointed in the media’s impatience. ‘When you going to fight somebody? You’re knocking everyone out." I went down that road with [David Lemieux] as you well know. [Writer’s note: Lemieux and his promoter wanted to fight Marco Antonio Rubio for a middleweight title shot eliminator. Anber disagreed, citing a lack of experience at that level. He was overruled and Rubio knocked Lemieux out.] “I am from the old school of development. I know what it takes to develop a fighter. It’s not just building up a record. It takes a lot more than that. The people who are impatient about him fighting someone because he is 25-0 with 25 knockouts, if he takes a step up sooner than he should and gets beat, all those people who said he should have made a step up will say "See? He never fought nobody. He never fought anybody on his way to the top. They built up a record and never fought anybody.’ I would never want that to happen to him." This is what I told people when I down in Tuscaloosa. ’Be patient. You’ll enjoy celebrating a champion with a parade down Main Street of Tuscaloosa instead of reading about a fighter who came up short.”
http://www.maxboxing.com/news/max-boxing-news/developing-deontay-wilder

 

You make a good comparison and I don’t discount it but, guys like Calzaghe were very technically sound years before they fought the elite guys…Loma is in a class of his own, phenomenal skills, would be a shame to see him wasting those skills on lesser opposition based on traditional career management…

Wilder is different breed of cat, phenomenal athlete with speed, power and reflexes but, doesn’t have the traditional boxing skill set…He wasn’t ready to take on the elite guys earlier but he seems to want to now. I thought Stiverne would beat him the first fight and really thought Ortiz would take him out…And regardless of post fight re-rating of said fighters, they were good wins for him.

He’s unique in many ways, let’s hope it was worth the wait…

 

Because his only significant win to date was a closely fought bout with an aging Louis Ortiz -a man whose own resume is also lacking in wins over elite opposition.

That said, Deontay could still achieve greatness by getting wins over some of the following: Anthony Joshua, Alexander Povetkin, Tyson Fury, Dillian Whyte, Jarrell Miller, Joseph Parker, Dominic Brezeale and Dereck Chisora.

 

wilders boxing skills got him a bronze medal

and just to be clear I like the guy I want to see him fight my only complain is he talks to much but seems to me he's afraid to back it up

 

Fair enough…my only minor disagreement, I think his athleticism and power have been enough to get him by without developing the skills he should have developed much earlier. And it matters on the elite stage he’s on now.

I’ll never argue I don’t want to see him face the best at this point, he’s as ready as he’s going to be…I appreciate your perspective, thank you.

 

I always want the best to fight the best especially if you claim to be the best back it up

 

I kind of agree with this but, if that really was the case then why didn't Wilder and his team make fights with the likes of Mitchell prior to his chin getting cracked, Jennings who's been around a while now and Miller who's an even bigger, loader, more attention seeking gobshite than Wilder.

There have been numerous opportunities for Wilder and his team to make more positive steps towards really breaking his home market and yet they've shown themselves to be pretty incompetent in doing so. I'm a Brit and yet count Marvin Hagler and Mike Tyson amongst my fave fighters of all time. Wilder should be there too but for all the BS smoke and mirrors.....

 

What Wilder has achieved:

Won national amateur titles and an Olympic medal with a minimum of experience.

Won every professional fight, knocked out every opponent he has faced.

Won the WBC heavyweight championship.

Made millions of dollars.

Put himself in position as one of the three last men standing — along with AJ and Tyson Fury — in the heavyweight picture, and within a year if he can keep it up he could be the unified, undefeated, undisputed heavyweight champion of the world.

That’s a fair amount of accomplishments for someone who never put on a boxing glove unti he was about 19 or 20 years old.

 

But he's still fighting bums

 

Back to my point. Guys in the last 25 years who beat two top 5's at heavyweight (since jan 93):
1. Holyfield
2. Lewis
3. Bowe (only bc Golota acheived a high ranking by beating the crap out him)
4. Wlad
5. Vitali

*Povetkin--not sure if Chambers was top 5 when they fought. Don't think so.

If he beats maybe two more good fighters, he'll be firmly ahead of Povetkin.

 

First off, I don’t think professional fighters at that level are bums. They have more courage than you or I.

Furthermore, Luis Ortiz even by your standards is not a bum. If you say he is, it just shows you have an agenda.

I’m not going to go fight by fight because no matter what anyone says you’ve already decided — I think it’s funny that Wilder got criticized for fighting Molina and then AJ fights him and suddenly not a peep of criticism. People say Stiverne won a vacant belt so Wilder didn’t fight a real champ, yet AJ fought Charles Martin to win his title and not a peep.

IF Povetkin pops dirty AGAIN, I’m going to be interested in the reaction if AJ doesn’t fight him.

AJ should get a lot of credit for beating Wlad. Wilder should get a lot of credit for beating Ortiz.

I hope we get Wilder-Fury and then the winner vs. AJ. Then we can quit talking about resumes and who’s accomplished what and just agree that whoever comes out of that at the top of the heap is the best heavyweight in the world.