Was Fury a cherry pick gone wrong for Deontay Wilder?

Their first fight was not the "buzz" of the sports world. Maybe a million of 350 million Americans even knew it happened and most certainly weren't "buzzing". Face it, boxing is dead in America. The average American has never even heard of Fury, Wilder, Canelo, etc.

 

Everyone was buzzing when the first fight was over. The fight made both boxers mainstream sports stars. As I said, nobody was offering $100 million deals to either of them BEFORE the fight. After fight one, everything changed for both of them.

It's an example of NOT WAITING for a fight to "marinate" - I hate that word. Just fight. Deliver a great performance. When you do, you both get bigger. And your subsequent fights get bigger.

That's what happened with both of them.

 

No idea how you can imply that from what I said tbh.

When Wilder fought Fury the first time, OK try to keep up, Fury wasn't the world champion. He was seen as a has been and a stepping stone, at that point Wilder turned down an offer to fight Joshua and instead fought Fury.

Had Wilder instead signed to fight Joshua, he gets a crack at the world championship and a chance to place his name in the annals of history.

But as we know Wilder wanted 50%, fair play to him, so he cherry picked Fury in the hope he would increase his Brit Exposure, and it backfired because he would get schooled and never again add a meaningful name to his resume.

I know someone has to get there last, in case no one has told you, that's you here.

 

LMAO you thinking either is mainstream.

 

The abolsute irony of it. AJ would not have gotten up from that KD Fury took in the 12th in figth 1.

 

BS!!! It was not a cherry pick. Fury is the HW World Champion not a bum.

 

Yeah cause it backfired

 

Not at the time he wasn't. His performance in dominating Wilder shocked the world.

 

He wasn't at the time though. He had a claim to the lineal and ducked the rematch with Vlad and went on a bender for a couple of years whilst serving a PED ban..... so no not quite. It appears that you are looking with hindsight....

 

It didn't go wrong because Wilder scored 2 KD's, got a draw and defended his title against the 27-0 lineal champion while massively boosting his profile and earnings.

Was it a cherrypick? I'd say that team Wilder thought that Fury would not be at his best following the inactivity, obesity, drugs etc. Fury also didn't look near his best in the exhibition with Seferi and sparring session with Pianeta. But nevertheless, Fury was 7th ranked by Ring when he fought Wilder, was favoured on this forum to beat Wilder and was close to even odds with the bookmakers. Ergo, Fury was considered the 2nd toughest possible opponent for Wilder at the time. The Joshua fight wasn't realistically on the table because AJ and Hearn were playing games with % splits and A-side/B-side, so Fury was generally regarded as the best opponent that Wilder could realistically fight.

 

You actually outline exactly why it was a cherry pick and why it went wrong.

He was offered more money to fight the perceived best HW in the world at the time (AJ) and he turned it down to fight the lesser regarded Fury.

Obviously it went wrong because we never saw the mega unification fight, which we can look back and say Wilder had a really good chance if victory, and actually the only name Wilder would ever add to his resume again would be Brezeale. That's it. Wilder never got his dream of being an undisputed champion.

Had he taken the better offer, to fight the higher ranked fighter, it all could have gone a whole lot better for him.

 

It went wrong because AJ got battered by Ruiz. In retrospect team Wilder should have taken 40% or thereabouts and probably KO'd AJ. But no one was expecting AJ to lose to a 25-1 underdog.

In retrospect team AJ should have offered 50-50. But they didn't and AJ suffered the most humiliating defeat in boxing history. Joshua-Ruiz 1 was a far better example of a cherrypick that went wrong.

 

Ruiz wasnt really a cherrypick. A late replacement for pharmacy miller.
Definitly underestimated him though.

Should have been an easy early ko on the US debut to counter Wilder blasting Brazeale to Brazil in 1.
And he almost did halfway trough round 1 till everything went wrong.

 

No not imo. Fury had talked his way pretty much into a fight with Wilder and was the last Lineal champion of the division. It only made sense for Wilder to take the fight. It was a great hw trilogy, one for the books.

 

not quite a cherry pick but, yes, a calculated risk which DW miscalculated as being not very risky for the reasons listed above.