Tyson Luke Fury vs. Deontay Leshun Wilder III & Efetobore Ajagba vs. Frank Sánchez Faure RBR

See I'm the opposite, I'm not saying how it is, more how it should be.

AJ and Fury have been in the same divisi5 for all of AJs career and the fight has t happened.

AJ and Wilder were young title holders at the same time, and are now both rightly regarded as past their best. That fight has gone now.

The ultimate example is Pac and Floyd in recent times.

Top often the best don't fight the best in boxing which is why UFC is more popular than ever right now imo.

 

Yeah I know, and that's why we're talking past each other a bit - I'd rather stay grounded for the moment.

I'd argue they haven't...

Fury has been out of the division for half his chronological career, he's not been fighting other people (pre-Wilder), he's been absent - the Wilder affair dragged on far longer than it should've.

It has.

But it takes two to tango, and Wilder wanted no part in it.
Arguably because he wanted more money, but it was always one side making all the moves.

Sure, and we can blame the fighters for their part in this.

Ironically, the alphabet orgs both create and fuel this problem.

If there were only one sanctioning body then the AJ-Wilder fight would never have been on the radar because Wilder doesn't have the resume to be anywhere near a shot (even assuming AJ would've been on top during those years, which seems entirely possible).

Having said that, if there were only one body, then it wouldn't be possible for champs to avoid deserving top fighters (like the Floyd/Pac example).

 

Annoying ref aside , what a fight.. and what a beautiful right hand to end matters , one of the most satisfying knockouts Ive ever witnessed!

 

To be frank, I didn't think it was a particularly entertaining fight either. I was absolutely raving in the forth, simply because for Wilder to turn it round, was extremely surprising. I expected Wilder to go down, and after Fury got up, it went back to being sloppy and boring IMO. I just didn't enjoy Fury leaning on him and falling into clinches after every long, scuffing right hand. His uppercut was pretty good but ultimately, Fury's pressure was so messy it ruined what could've been a great fight. Especially given how back-and-forth it went when Wilder let his hands go.

Now, there's been two things which have been getting on my ****ing nerves regarding this fight. The first is people saying Wilder looking the best he's ever looked.

I am convinced these people are blind.

Wilder looked like absolute ****. At 36 years old, 20lbs over weight and coming off an eighteen month layoff; he was clearly not quick on his feet, not nearly as explosive as he was back in the first Fury fight; had even worse stamina than he used to; and still hadn't recovered from his . The idea he was improved because he was bigger and stronger, and he has "made a great adaption" because he threw seven jabs and nine crosses to the body and abandoned it after two rounds. Wilder was a much, much better fighter a few years ago, and IMO, peaked between 2016-2019.

Both Fury and Wilder looked like ****.

The second think is people saying Tyson Fury is now a certified great. A win over an old Deontay Wilder does not make you an all-time great

 

100% spot on!

I woke up to reports saying this was an ATG Heavyweight fight - one for the ages; Deontay looked as good as he ever has, a changed fighter and Fury dug deep to persevere after an exchange of KD's

What I saw was Wilder for once boxing basic fundamenatls in round 1, then going off plan.
Then an out of sorts Fury with little of the movement and defence he normally has overtaking a gassed Wilder after almost paying the price for a very sloppy 4th round. From the 6th onwards, it was all Fury, but a lot of that seemed to me to be because Wilder was staggering around like a zombie, wide open and just flailing around with punches that didn't have his usual bite to them.

Maybe watching live this fight seemed a lot better than it was given the KD ebb and flow, but in terms of the quality of boxing on display it wasn't a patch on Usyk v Joshua in my book.

 

I tend to blame both parties when a fight doesn't come off.

But I just think in the post Wlad era there's been 3 premiere HW fighters, AJ, Fury and Wilder.

They should have all fought each other, and they haven't.

It's such a massive shame

 

It's very generous to call Wilder a premier fighter - his resume doesn't come close to backing that up, and he's consistently ducked Joshua (whether through fear or $$).

It makes your point worse, though, in that it means that we've had 0/1 instead of 1/3.

I could easily argue, also, that Fury's long-term absence makes it 0/0 for a long time - a damning condemnation of the entire era.

 

You shouldn't be watching these boxing matches while on crack son.

 

With Wilder, when he'd knocked Ortiz for the second time and AJ had just lost by knockout he was the highest ranked HW in the world, which is why it was a such a big win for Fury.

Either way the fights haven't happened which is very poor.

It would have been like Miocic never fighting Overeem, Cormier or NGannou twice. Just unthinkable in the UFC.

 

A ludicrous ranking if ever there was one.

Ortiz was always hopelessly overrated to begin with and everyone already knew Wilder had lost to Fury by then.

Yep, it is...
But like I say, that this even occurs to you is because of the alphabet soup - if there was only one sanctioning body we'd never have heard of Deontay in the first place.

 

Perhaps so, but it was what it was.

If there was only one championship, and Fury would have held it after beating Wlad, and then retiring.

And then AJ vs Wlad is fought for the vacant title which AJ wins.

If AJ would have never defended against Wilder he'd have been accused of ducking his outstanding contender until he got old and lost to Fury.

And if that wasn't the case then I guess you could argue that Fury wouldn't today be the outstanding contender to Usyk, since he's only beaten an over rated fighter whilst AJ is exercising his rematch clause.

So actually I guess it's Fury who comes off worse in that scenario.

 

All 3 judges had Fury clearly ahead by the time of the stoppage, thank god for that.

 

If there was only one belt, then Wilder's resume would never have got him remotely close to being considered the "outstanding contender", that's the whole point.


The theoretical side of who'd actually be #1 is kinda irrelevant, really, because the guys who dared fight genuine contenders (so AJ, Fury, Usyk, Whyte, Parker) would still have floated towards the top and been forced to fight each other whilst the likes of Wilder and Ortiz would never have been in the picture to begin with because they didn't.

This is why having so many orgs is so bad for the sport, it allows fighters to claim a status that their abilities and exploits don't merit.

 

Indeed, good to see legit cards (even if closer than I had it)... Still glad it didn't go to them though.

 

why would AJ v Wlad be for the vacant title?
AJ did well to win that fight but he wasn't deserving of a high ranking going in. He had not earned the right to be one of the last two standing. Wlad's claim is dubious too, since he was 41 and coming off the loss to Fury.

The fact is, while Fury was on his hiatus/retirement, no one stepped up and established themselves to take his place as 'lineal'.