I'm sure no one else expected both of these fights to be modern classics but lo and behold we have some HW fights that will be remembered for years. AJ vs Klitschko was more of a passing of the torch fight while Fury vs Wilder 3 was the closure of a heated rivalry. Out of the 2 which would you say was the better, more memorable HW fight overall and which would you say created a bigger impact on the HW division?
I'd say AJ vs Wlad. Two much bigger names. AJ is the biggest name on HW boxing at the moment by far, and Wlad was champ for 11 years, also very well known. Also it was just as dramatic at times as fury vs wilder, and arguably more brutal in terms of the KO's. It was also more competitive with bother fighters having dominant spells. Where as Wilder was only dominant for round 4, then Fury most dominant after and Wilder was shot rounds 5-11, just holding on, and the power in his punches were gone.
Fury v Wilder 3 was better. They were both trying to knock each other's head off constantly. It was just more brutal. AJ v Wlad was exciting but it took a little longer to warm up and Wlad was still a bit too cautious when he had AJ in trouble. Great fight though.
Probably AJ vs Klitschko because no one knew how it would go beforehand and during the fight right up until the end it was not clear who would win.
In terms of excitement AJ/Wlad was more thrilling to me. Fury/Wilder3 was too one sided while AJ/Wlad was far more competitive.
Both great fights for me. Hard to choose. The AJ/ Wlad was especially exciting at the time due to it was the first time AJ had been on his arse. We didn't know how he'd cope with it. The fact that he got up to then get the KO over Wlad in the 11th was pretty sublime. I wasn't expecting it and thought Wlad was maybe heading for a points win. Plenty of twists and turns. The 3rd Fury/Wilder was an out and out brawl. Again it also had twists and turns but the outcome was not to surprising, but still very spectacular. Still very much edge of the seat stuff. You don't get a much rawer battle of the trenches fight than this. The heart and willpower of both were off the scale. I don't think I can pick between them TBH as the merits of both fights were different. Classic Apples and Pears.
With the build up and the rivalry between Fury and Wilder, this was better for me. I found it to be one of the most edge of seat matches I've watched.
A tight one but i would pick AJ v Klitschko just because of watching it a packed pub and the atmosphere was electric, as opposed to sitting alone in my front room with the sound on low trying to avoid waking up my grumpy wife.
Fury v Wilder trilogy is even better than Ali v Frazier and Holyfield v Bowe imo. Real slugfests all the three fights.
AJ vs Wlad - not as sloppy and much more technical boxing match. More exciting fight too with a lot more anticipation and hype in the UK.
I feel this needs pointing out as I don't think it has been on here before: The version of VLAD who Hearn dug out of retirement and shipped over to London to face Josh had not won a fight for two years, was coming off a loss, hadn't been in the ring for 18 months, was shot to pieces, saggy backed, and never fought again. And he still took big josh life and death. It would be roughly the equivalent of Fury digging up David D Haye in 2021 and going life and death with him.
Ignore the fact that Wlad was in training camps during that time but Fury pulled out as he couldn't sell any seats on his town for the rematch. Wlad came in the lightest he had done in about 7 years and looked best shape he had done in years. Wlad could come out retirement now and still beat Wilder.