"Beating a 2023 version of Joshua doesn't prove he beats him back then" The same could be said in reverse: Joshua beating a 38 year old, twice KO'd, one win in his last three fights Wilder doesn't mean he'd beat him in 2018. But in reality, the winner is most likely going to go on to have a greater legacy and would be favoured to beat the other 5 years prior. Zhang was around in 2015-2018 but fighting the Juan Goode's and Byron Polley's. He simply wasn't a factor and had no claim. The guys in the mix in Fury's absence were Wilder, Joshua, Wlad, Ortiz and Povetkin. Wilder's claim would be the strongest of that crop: 0-2-1 with Fury, 1-0 with Joshua, 2-0 with Ortiz (who team Povetkin are on record ducking). Team Joyce are on record ducking a post-Wilder 1 Ortiz, let alone the 30-0 Ortiz that Wilder fought. Ortiz and Joyce also have a mutual opponent in Jennings, who many thought beat or drew with Joyce in Britain. "But only Wilder gets a shot at beating him? Hardly seems fair." I don't know where fairness comes into it but the next guy with a shot at beating Joshua is Whyte in about 3 weeks.
If Zhang wasn't a factor that can be attributed to the other fighters avoiding him and not giving him opportunities. If Wilder or Joshua had fought him that would suddenly make him a potential player in the division would it not? If Andy Ruiz can upset Joshua why not Zhang?
Probably not a first ballot but eventually he'll get there.....Fury is a first ballot. He needs to establish himself as the next star after Fury retires or, have Joshua beat Fury and then him beat Joshua.
Let me show you how stupid you are. You don't even know me or nothing about me. Yet you on here making baseless assumptions about a man you know nothing about. I don't have to fight Wilder to know that he can't box. I know boxing period. Teddy Atlas knows boxing, Derrick James knows boxing, Angelo Dundee knows boxing, Nacho Beristain knows boxing and I can go on and on. Do you think that they can stand 30 seconds with Wilder. They know he can't box. He can fight but his boxing game sucks. If he could box, he would have knocked out Tyson Fury. Now, do like the scarecrow and go find some brains.
It's comical that you think you "can box" (despite being an anonymous nobody) and Wilder: an Olympic medallist and long-reigning champion who has been paid tens of millions to box, "can't box".
"If Wilder or Joshua had fought him that would suddenly make him a potential player in the division would it not?" Assuming he won, which he failed to do vs Hrgovic and Forrest. Zhang won't be the retrospective No.1 heavyweight in Fury's absence from 2015-2018 if he beats Joyce for a second time while Wilder beats Joshua (assuming that happens). Wilder would be 0-2-1 with Fury, 1-0 with Joshua and 2-0 with Ortiz, while Zhang would be 0-1 with Hrgovic, 0-0-1 with Forrest and 2-0 with Joyce, the latter not being a factor at the time either and now ranked near the bottom of the top 10. If it plays out like this no one will look back on 2015-2018 and say "Zhang was the No.1 heavyweight at that time", going life and death with Juan Goode. It will be Wilder, who had racked up 7 defences by the time Fury returned to fight him and who would go on to beat his main rival at the time and still consensus top 4 heavyweight, Joshua.
When you drift down to personal insults you just show your weakness and that you cannot really anything - not even to stay on the subject in a forum. Well , at least I will stay on the subject : calling out that a former hw world champion "cannot box" is laughable . There is room for discussion if his skills are below other top hw boxers and he equilizes this with sheer power but its plain funny to say wilder , a hw wbc champion 2015-2020 with 10 title defences and 42ko,s in 43 wins "cannot box"
You the one that can't stay on the subject, I said that Wilder can't box and you started trying to tell me what I can't do when the statement was about Wilder. Instead of asking me why I think that he can't box, you came with some yak about what he would do to me in 30 seconds and I must be a P4P level fighter to make a statement like that. GTFOH. You act like people can't know boxing without physically boxing themselves. That's not my case but I do know that people who have never fought can have more knowledge of boxing than people who have fought all their lives. It's and art and a science that can one can learn, understand and teach without physically experiencing it. There is very little boxing in Wilders fights and if you can't see that then you don't know squat about boxing. Boxing calls for applying a learned set of skills in a disciplined manner. Wilder don't do that, or does very little of it. The man can't box. Get over it.
A win over Usyk would be his best. But I don't see him winning ANY of the three choices you laid out there. His current best win is probably Bermane...maybe Ortiz. He has yet to garner a signature win.
Boxing is finally about winning the fight. Boxers like wilder rely more on sheer power than on skills while boxers like usyk rely more on skills than on sheer power. That is nothing new you discovered here. Again : boxing is finally about winning the fight , and wilder has won a lot of fights so calling out "he can,t box" stays laughable. What is true : he is not a technically very sophisticated boxer.