What is Deontay Wilder's legacy?

Good post. He was deeply flawed but fun to watch. Long arns and a lethal right hand thrown unorthodox positions.

What Fury figured out is Wilder couldn't fight going backwards. Fury blubbered up and used his mass to push Wilder backwards.

It was an astute observation and a brilliant but dangerous strategy that saw Fury on his knees more than a Thai bar girl.

It worked out in the end though.

Would AJ have figured that out? Probably not to be honest.

 

Agreed. I suppose we will never know with AJ v Wilder. Joshua was more compact and I'd say a better package but we all know Wilder had the speed to land that almighty right hand, we just never knew when exactly it was coming.
What an entertaining scrap we missed out on between those two which would have been over in 3 - 5 rounds.

I reckon Wilder would have caught AJ.

 

Equally... There's a reason Wilder never fought fighters who'd have been likely to put him on that back foot.

For example - put him in with Chisora for example, and he'd be likely to get pushed back and stopped... Probably same with Whyte, hence the shameless ducking.

It's all part of that carefully curated resume - it's not just the quality of opponents that was restricted.

 

I 100% agree on his flaws. But bivol is a master at this, not every boxer can get to his level of range control even if they try their hardest all their life.

not everything is a dedication and training issue, just like no matter how much bivol trains he won’t have the power of wilder.

wilder was too much to deal with as he had a good jab and 1-2, he was a ko artist, bivol isn’t.

imagine how good bivol would be if he trained to be a ko artist too and hit with wilders ferocity

 

I like Wilder but he didnt beat a single good HW in his prime throughout his entire career. So honestly, hes quite overrated.

 

As general boxing styles, you beat a power puncher by backing them up as usually it negates them setting up power shots.
So it was no mastermind tactic, everyone knows this.

the issue is, everyone will be trying but not many can pull it off. You are walking through fire to beat a power puncher.

fury pulled it off so credit to his ability in pulling it off. This was the mastery, in being able to pull the plan off that so many have tried

look back in history, it’s how you usually beat a power puncher. Ali famously did it another way.

 

None of the top guys were scared of Whyte or Chisora.
Next you will be saying they were scared of Dave Allen.

 

Please....the era was marked by protectionism on all sides.

Wilder was flawed but so was AJ. As we saw in Ruiz 1, AJ did not have the best of chins and had some quitter in him.

At their peaks it would have been an entertaining fight and one which either man could have one.

 

Fury spent most of their first fight sticking and moving. It worked until he was famously knocked down for a 15 count.

Only after that, according to Fury, did he figure out that Wilder could be bullied inside.

He exploited that in the second fight. A fight in which Fury employed a very different strategy than the first.

 

The era being marked by protectionism doesn't mean we just handwave away one fighter being FAR more protected than everyone else.

AJ beat legit contenders and fringe contenders.
Wilder didn't.

Wilder would've had a punchers chance, as Rahman did against Lewis, and could've won - but he'd have lost more times than not, realistically.

 

I can only look at what people would do head to head.

AJ feasted on British crumpets and old men. Povetkin, Pulev and Vlad were well passed their expiration dates when AJ fought them.

He was built up to be something he wasn't until being exposed as a quitter by Ruiz and a somewhat robotic plodder by Usyk.

There's a real chance Wilder would have caught him with that right hand and of course the opposite is true.

At least there was no quit in Wilder.

 

It's become a myth Wilder can't fight on the backfoot. He laid Fury on the canvas twice fighting backwards in the third fight, most would have been KO'd there. He also landed in the second fight in the first and second rounds and Fury was lucky he got a more accurate bomb on target first.

It wasn't some genius tactic that Fury's trainer or Fury himself worked out, pressuring Wilder, it was just stupid but it paid off at the expense of some brain damage. Fury got it in his head he couldn't win by boxing because he got KD'd in the first fight and robbed on the cards, then went on to get KD'd and take more damage in the third. Fury wanted the stoppage largely to avoid the robbery, but it doesn't mean it was the only way to win or the best way.

Wilder likes to wait to land big shots so people coming at him suits him in many ways because they walk into RH's. There are quite a few fights where people pressed forward and Wilder was on the backfoot and he KO'd them. You have the French Chef guy, Stiverne I (didn't KO but KD'd and it wasn't called), Arreola ... Ortiz pressed the action and Wilder was on the backfoot a lot. Helenius and the Polish guy both got KO'd coming at Wilder and running into a RH.

Fury has incredible reach so it helped him a little in pressing forward since he could land first, but it was still extremely dangerous.

 

You continually suggest wilder was the only one who had a matchmaker though.
Every prospect has a matchmaker.

wilder did beat fringe contenders, you just refuse to acknowledge them, even though some were common opponents with aj

 

AJ was no Lewis. Lewis was a very talented boxer prone to over confidence.

AJ was a good but not great boxer with a questionable heart.

He is not in Lewis's league.

 

Agree with this. Fury’s size, reach and massive weight helped him do what others couldn’t.

also, 2 of those fights could have very easily been wins for wilder…they were razor thin and in the hands of the ref. The ref decided 2 of the fights. But 3 I have to say, fury finished wilder fully. (Although it was waved off when he hit the floor and he did get up)