Deontay Wilder Legacy

You missed being defeated by his ring walk costume

 

If he had Steward as his trainer and wasn’t arrogant he could have been the best heavyweight of all time.

 

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Rather watch Robinson vs Turpin 2 in full color then think about Wilder or his legacy or lack thereof.

 

Long time WBC title holder with freakish power who couldn't really box and mostly fought cans, got destroyed by Fury.

That pretty much sums it up I'd say.

 

Seeing as many of his deranged fans only support him because he shares their skin colour I'd imagine that being destroyed twice and retired in his prime by Irish Traveller Fury will seriously compromise his legacy. His status as an ATG puncher is secure though: Earnie Shavers was a far more prolific basher of club fighters and sub-heavies as @Dubblechin has documented and he was stopped in the 1st round by small cruiser "Irish" Jerry Quarry, so it could be worse for Wilder.

 

I think he will be remembered as a limited fighter but also as a late arrival to the sport who was able to use his natural punching power to get him to a place no one would have thought possible. He at times was amateurish, had a decent chin and conditioning , carried his power the whole fight,…..but he also had character flaws that made him come across as moronic and paranoid.

 

Who's Deontay Wilder?

 

Well the first legitimate top tier heavy he faced he couldn't beat in two fights so the bar is pretty low.

 

What legacy?

For having the biggest spot picking and padded record ever for a World champion?

Or for having a list of worst excuses ever to lose a fight?

 

Mac Foster or Michael Grant in an era when guys like that were handed belts.

 

Michael Grant actually had a better resume than Wilder it's wild.

 

Not sure history will remember him because he has maybe two fights with rewatchability (Fury I and one of the Ortiz fights). A KO1 can be entertaining on fight night but no one's gonna track it down on YouTube.

But the truth is he brought excitement into a division that had been dominated by jab-and-grab. He rekindled a little interest in the US, and was making steady defences while his WBC successor was having a panic attack for 5 years.

 

Let's see him fight and win against Jerry Forrest first.

 

For me the iconic Wilder moments are windmilling a collapsed Audley Harrison with such unnecessary abandon that his missed punches almost made him take off, and that time he brutally KO'd a man dressed as a tampon. I suppose the Fury trilogy will have an influence over how his career is seen retrospectively, and one suspects it will not be kind to his "legacy" as a boxer. All that said, he's always been entertaining at least.