Wilder’s run has been terribly sub par and you won’t find an honest person that believes he deserved a draw with Fury. Basically his run should of ended. It’s frustrating because the wbc allows this and then casual fans and Ill informed people spout off about number of title defenses without context. Making Wilder appear to be on even historical grounds with fighters like Mike Tyson, Larry Holmes or Wlad. It’s a joke. His legacy has more in common with Sven Ottke who will never be remembered in the same breath as someone like Marvin Hagler.
I don't agree with this...early on in his career he had easy match ups, but it was mainly because he had a short amateur career and little boxing experience compared to other professionals. In recent years he's actively made efforts to fight Joshua and Fury. It seems to me that Joshua's side is the one that's been difficult to deal with for both Wilder and Fury. Wilder also had some bad luck where the people he hoped to fight failed drug tests.
Well then lets take a close look.........how many rival promoters have they taken on? How many times has Wilder been a road warrior? Since he's been the champ the longest, how many ex champs has he beat? How many pedigreed up and comers has he faced? Has he cleaned out the division---9 challengers means cleaned out, right? How many times has he matched other champions to unify the belts? did he meet and defeat his contemporaries? Lots of face first guys in that bunch---how many good defenses has he penetrated? Seems like for a lot of those questions, the answer begins with the letter Z.
exactly. Somehow Wilder has managed to avoid Wlad, Povetkin, Pulev, Joshua, Whyte, and numerous contenders on the way up. The one guy he fought, Fury, who can't punch and was out of the ring for 3 years on alcohol and drugs schooled him. Wilder is a hyped and protected fihtger. He hasn't earned anything on any all time lists yet. He's beaten Stiverne and an old ortiz who twice failed ped tests and was off the juice and likely in his 40s. but he couldn't fight Povetkin flew back home for that one.
Not really. He missed a couple of important contenders for sure, but there is no doubt who the champion was.
A serious omission no doubt, but Dempsey was the lineal champion, and Wills was his outstanding challenger.
Wills was the "Colored Champion." The belt was therefore splintered. It's very telling that you avoided naming him two posts ago while knowing damn well who I was referring to.
Agree with you.. Can't be lineal if you do not fight the best. There will always be that big Asterisks by Dempsey's name. And I love Dempsey, but if you don't fight Wills , you have to fight Greb…. neither is inexcusable
The big huge downside to all of this is to us---the hardcore boxing fans. We are fed less competitive matches as the years go on. You would think the opposite is true listening to the garbage the promoters and often times, fighters themselves spew. But shouldn't a champion be held to championship standards?
He was supposed to fight Povetkin but it didn't go through because of the failed drug test. I'm pretty sure he didn't fight Ortiz earlier than he did for the same reasons. I maintain it is Joshua that's been the roadblock with the Wilder and Fury fights, Deontay made it clear he'd be willing to go over there to fight him but Anthony (or his team) don't seem keen on making the fight happen. Fury has expressed similar frustrations with it being difficult to make a fight with Joshua. Washington and Arreola were fill ins, and from what I remember Wilder was mandated to rematch Stiverne. Wilder has been pretty vocal with his desire to unify and willingness to fight whoever.
The story behind the Stiverne rematch is that Povetkin was supposed to fight Stiverne in an eliminator but dropped out after failing a PED's test (Stiverne also tested positive for a nasal decongestant earlier but was fined and allowed to proceed with the fight because it was a first offense). That's why Stiverne was the mandatory. Povetkin shot himself in the foot for the second time.
So Stiverne was allowed to fight after failing a test but Povetkin wasn’t when he tested within legal limits of melodium the first time. Actually Wilder and his team flew back home from England (never even stepping foot in Russia) before the Wbc could even rule on the situation basically canceling the fight themselves instead of the sanctioning body that oversees the bout. Convenient that wilder said he would never fight a ped cheat but was willing to go back on that for Ortiz and now offer an even older and already ko’d Ortiz a rematch. I’m still trying to figure out how Wilder received a title eliminator against Malik Scott. So many red flags with Wilders career
