AJ’s résumé has aged like an egg sandwich

Wilder fought a lot of stiffs on the way up but that's hardly uncommon in boxing history, especially considering his late start and short amateur career. Wilder's level of competition was gradually stepped up: 1.5 years very low, 2.5 years low, 2 years low-medium, 3 years medium-high and 3.5 years high. Andy Ruiz predominately fought low quality opponents for the first 7.75 years and 29 pro fights to the age of 27.25, despite having 110 amateur bouts and boxing since he was 6 years old. His best win pre-Joshua was a competitive fight over the 10 round distance with a washed up Kevin Johnson. Yet this is barely ever mentioned by comparison.

Whose "rankings" are sacrosanct? These bodies make what I regard as horrific blunders all the same. For example: Martin and Takam were higher ranked opponents when AJ fought them than Usyk was. I prefer to look at comparative performances: if the performances of Wilder's opponents compare favourably or similarly with the opponents of his rivals, they are not bad opponents (at least relatively). There's also the question of how dangerous these opponents are: if they come to take dives (Scott against Wilder, Martin and Molina against AJ) they are not worth anything, if they come to survive rather than win and if they don't have serious power or real skill, they aren't very dangerous. When it really comes down to it most defences are soft touches, regardless of the spin or nostalgia. On the whole, Wilder's weren't worse than AJ's: how many losses would AJ have if he had faced Fury x3, Ortiz x2, Stiverne 1 and 39 other opponents? Certainly more than he currently does.

 

Wlad and Povetkin are his best wins imo. Pulev and Takam are below Whyte, Ruiz and Parker for me. Only three of them possess a real KO threat (Wlad especially, Povetkin, Whyte) yet AJ managed to get KO'd by a non-puncher and schooled by Usyk.

Fury's wins over Chisora are the 6th and 7th best on his record but both Whyte and Parker got A-side decisions against Chisora. I could see Cunningham and Wallin giving 39 year old Povetkin serious problems or beating him.

Usyk's record is hard to compare because 16/19 of his fights are at cruiserweight. Only two of his heavyweight fights are relevant and they are 2/3 of his toughest pro fights.

 

Debatable, maybe he is. He gets a lot of hate on this forum because on some level we all know he could KO anyone's favourite heavyweight in a hypothetical matchup, especially if that heavyweight is fragile like Lewis or Wlad.