Between 2016 and 2019, the majority of English-speaking and French fans considered Joshua the true heavyweight champion and saw Wilder as a paper champ who had only beaten easy challengers. Joshua would have been seen as the overwhelming favorite had they faced each other. For rather vague reasons, Joshua is today seen as the con and Wilder as a true champion by many fans. Many claim that in the event of a fight, Wilder would knock out AJ.
Wilder AJ is who lands first Really doesn't come down to skill and boxing. I think Wilder's boxing ability has been shoehorned, he has more to him than meets the eye. Sure his feet lag a little and he relies a bit too much on his height and range for defence but that was still plenty enough to make Fury work hard to get on him. It's probably more of a mental fight for both of them than it is in the physical.
Wilder a true champ? By beating Stiverne Ortiz? lmao. Anyone who thinks Wilder is a true champ and Joshua a Fraud needs brain surgery, and there is no comparison between their resumes.
Apart from DoubleChin I don't know anyone who considers Wilder the true champion at all. Yes a fight between AJ and Wilder is seen as harder to call now, because we know AJ is vulnerable, and we know Wilder power is legit, but that's natural since we have more information on them now.
Fury fans have been blowing sunshine up Wilders ass to try and bolster Fury's sad resume. Wilder fans have been blowing sunshine up Fury's ass to bolster their guys pathetic reputation and resume. No one else rates either as some kind of atg"s
Fury has been overrated off the back of his Wilder wins, there is no doubt about it. But just to balance it out AJ did that first. You can praise him for willing to take on the best and looking for challenges but that doesn't mean the opponents he's faced are actually any use. Outside of past prime Povetkin and Klitschko there is nothing to write home about but everyone goes on about it though he's the king of boxing taking on all comers and risking it all. A 'throwback fighter'. Fury has taken on long serving champs in their own backyard with the deck stacked against him. Joshua bought some belts and then defended them on his own turf against over hyped opponents with his own judges/referees on his own promotions. If you have the audacity to beat him then you have to do it all over again for it to count.
Agreed, remember when Eddie Hearn constantly used to list Joshua's opponents like it was murderer's row of killers. And over time he would gradually not list every name. Charles Martin - Awful Dominic Brazeale - Awful Takam - Decent but nothing special (Knocked out by Chisora) Whyte - Good but nothing special (beaten easily by Fury, + life and death with Chisora) Parker- Good but nothing special Povetkin - Decent but way past prime Klitschko - V.Good but way past prime (couldnt lay a glove on Fury) Pulev - Decent but way past prime Ruiz - Battered by him Ruiz 2 - Ruiz clearly in much worse condition than 1st fight Also, AJ was fast tracked to stardom because of his gold medal gift, so if you want to earn PPV money early in your career and grab an easy world title early in your career then you have no choice but to fight half decent opponents But let's not get carried away, into thinking he was going into one 50/50 fight after another
I mean at the time AJ fought him, if he was in his prime would have probably been the best win on AJs resume outside of Vlad
Joshua's resume aged poorly, and Wilder's then bad resume actually aged okay in direct comparison to Joshua. Ortiz beat up and retired Charles Martin Arreola (who was beyond shot) had a close life and death slugfest with the guy who stopped Joshua Wilder stopped Breazeale in a minute, who was tagging Joshua and having mild success On top of this, Parker, Joshua's best win for much of his career (it was either him or a 41 year old, two year out of the ring Vlad), proved to be completely mediocre and barely above a Chisora level. Dillian Whyte, a strong 0 on AJ's resume wasn't able to land a single shot on Fury after going to war with Joshua years earlier. I think after Joshua quit against Ruiz and was thoroughly schooled by Usyk, fans were willing to take a second look at "THE BEST HW RESUME, BY FAR" line that Eddie had successfully sold them. The reality is, other than 41 year old Vladimir, there isn't anything on Joshua's resume that Wilder wouldn't be a solid favorite against. We cannot forget that Wilder signed to fight Povetkin, in Russia, in 2015.