We have to appreciate prime Deontay Wilder was one of the hardest hitters in boxing history

Yes. I only consider him a champ after the 1st Fury fight but he has the highest KO rate of any HW contender ever. Earnie Shavers lost almost all his big fights and was never even a NABF champion and people are able to appreciate him. Lots of HW contenders have had padded records and none matched his mark. Frank Bruno(who was 2nd until today) beat Oliver McCall for his belt wheres his 10 fake title defenses? In a fit of irony the 2nd highest KO rate of a top HW is actually.....Daniel Dubois.

As far as I'm concerned the WBC stopped giving out HW belts after Vitalis first retirement. Its not really Wilders fault that the WBC lowered their standards as low as they did. He didn't force the WBC to make Stiverne v Arreola a title fight or make Stiverne a mandatory challenger(lol). And while he could have fought better competition Ortiz, Fury, Breazeale, Ortiz, Fury, Fury is a solid backstretch there.

 

If Wilder had KO wins against the likes of Wlad, Whyte, Povetkin and even someone like Pulev or Takam this statement would be a lot stronger. Hell, even a knockdown against a known iron chin like Ruiz or beating some tough but limited contender like, I don't know, Francis Ngannou or someone would go a long way. But all Wilder has to show for his supposedly awesome power is a few one punch knockouts of glassy or bummy low level guys, two stoppages of an overrated and unproven old Cuban man with a mean and snarly face, and some knockdowns of a shaky chinned dosser known for dialling it in and going on massive drink and drug binges. Power doesn't exist as a defined measurable metric. It needs to be gauged in relation to who you fight, and if all you fight are sausages, muffins and Turkish delights then however many brutal knockouts you get doesn't mean a whole lot.

 

I'd say top ten is hard to argue. Top five meh maybe, but I don't think so, he really only KO'ed cans. Hardest hitter of all time, no way.

 

Lol, no we don't.

 

who says?

 

Based on what? He beat Ortiz. Fair play to him.

 

I’d struggle to name 5 bigger hitters so he makes my top 5 list.

 

Tyson
Tua
Wlad
Lennox
Foreman

There you go.

 

I've never liked Wilder and I've always thought he was massively overhyped........

But let's be fair he was knocking out fighters who out weighed him by a considerable amount, how many other Heavyweights do you know that consistently stopped fighters who had over 20-30 pounds weight advantage consistently ?

Yeah his opposition was fairly forgettable granted and I've often been the one to bring up that hes only beaten 2 opponents who were ranked in the top 10.

But I'll give him credit for knocking out alot of fighters who outweighed him by considerable amount, and the way he did with one punch was also quite scary at times.

I honestly think Wilder was more of an athlete who just happened to possess freakish right hand power.

 

Good puncher but who are his top five fighters he beat? Ortiz Stivetne Helenius Arreola Szpilka?

 

His reputation as a puncher is about as proven as Ali Raymi, in that his resume is built on soft touches hand picked to make him look good, which worked out fine until he cherry picked a supposedly shot Fury.

His best win is Luis Ortiz, who his an even thinner resume than him and who's chin is questionable given he was dropped twice by Andy Ruiz and Charles Martin. Ortiz's chin is hardly iron. Wilder's made a career of KOing guys with average chins at best who were with the exception of Ortiz not even regarded as serious contenders.

Stiverne took him the distance.
Molina is a journeymen who had already been KO'ed in 1 by Arreola and Ashanti Jordan.
Duhaupas another journeymen who went 11 rounds with Wilder but was brutally KO'ed in 6 by Povetkin a year later.
Szpilka another journeymen who had a glass chin that took Wilder 9 rounds that the crude Kownacki stopped in 4 and gatekeeper Chisora stopped in 2 rounds.
Arreola who at this stage was way, way past his prime and even then Wilder couldn't legitimately KO him as Arreola quit.
Washington another journeymen which Wilder took 5 rounds to stop who Kownacki again stopped faster in 2 rounds. Christ Kownacki has a better argument as biggest puncher based on this and the Szpilka fights.
Stiverne rematch when Stiverne was basically shot and would lose his next 3 fights being stopped by Joyce and Trevor Bryan of all people.
Ortiz we've covered his chin hardly iron, average chin at best.
Fury despite getting hit flush multiple times in 3 fights got up every time and Usyk hurt Fury way worse than Wilder ever did.
Breazeale again doesn't have an iron chin having been stopped by Joshua already and been down against Mansour and Ugonoh.
Helenius is another fighter with a less than stellar chin being stopped by light punching Duhaupas and Washington.

So Wilder has never KO'ed anyone with a good chin and couldn't even KO Fury who's chin is average at best. I'd argue he's not even the biggest puncher of his own era with Zhang emerging as a genuinely big heavy handed puncher.

 

No we can't "all agree" about that.....

How can you say someone in their prime when they were still facing competition at the level of when they first became pro.....

Wilder has NEVER been elite. He was simply advertised that way because America needed another Heavyweight champion to promote. All of our big athletes are no longer boxing growing up. They are getting top $$ playing basketball & football....If Wilder had defense and a decent jump shot, he'd be Kwahi Leonard. Though Kwahi weights 15lbs heavier.

Wilder has relied on a "club punch" in which it bailed him out of many situations in the ring in which some actually tried to bring the fight to him. Most others were just fearful of it.

It's silly to claim Wilder is the "hardest hitter in history"....even by other boxers. Unless they have been punched by many of the hardest hitters they are comparing him to, how can they be accurate with that statement. Tyson isn't the only dangerous puncher that should be mentioned in statements like that. Some of us seasoned fans remember what Sonny Liston did to his opponents. As well as Lyle & Shavers. Ali himself mentioned in his book, the only time he had fear, even if briefly, was win he saw a young George Foreman hitting the heavy bag. And there were many heavy hitters in history whom weren't heavyweights as well, like Geral mcClellan, Nigel Benn, or Julian Jackson.

Asking someone to rank Wilder's hitting all time....what is one suppose to base it on?

 

Wilder might not even be top 5 in active boxers imo obviously hits hard but so do most Heavyweights you just need to look at the guys he was knocking out his power was massively overhyped

 

He was a can crusher. You get called the hardest hitter when people like Ali and Holmes say so, not Eric Molina and Artur Spilka.

 

Exactamundo. A Shannon Briggs type guy----looks great against the C level fighters.