Why do you think Wilder started losing?

He finally faced a semi live body.

 

Its not just one thing.

Obviously the trilogy destroyed both fighters. You don't get knocked down that many times and walk away like nothing happened.
If Ali and Frazier beat eachother up and were past their primes after their fights. Imagine now in an era where fighters are even bigger and instead of 1 knockdown in a trillogy,there were a total of like 9

Also Wilder got old in general

His level of competition went up. He fought no one but Ortiz prior to fury. After Fury he started to fight better competition and what you see is the result of that

 

A combination of stepping up in class and getting worse.

 

After a couple of years of being a world champion he stepped up to the world level and it was a step too far.

 

It's clearly all 3 things:

1. Fury fights did take a lot out of him.
2. Age (with a few notable exceptions, 37 and 38 year old fighters are well past it anyway)
3. Quality of opposition (he might well have lost to Parker and Zhang in his prime too)

 

* A 2017-'18 Wilder might well have lost to the 2023 Parker and the 2024 Zhang, but I am sure he would have put up a much better fight.

 

Because he is a one trick pony fraud.

 

Say what you will about Wilder, but that power was legit and at one point he could always find a way to land it. He gave the number 2 of this era (Fury) three tough fights knocking him down multiple times. He drew with Fury, technically defending his title against him (even if I thought he was robbed).

Sadly we'll never know how he would have gone against a lot of contenders, but I think that power bails him out more often than not.

 

If you look at a highlight reel of Wilder's KOs it's a series of guys just standing still in front of Wilder giving him time to plant his feet and wind up that big overhand right.

Fury (and Kronk Gym) exposed for all the world to see that a fighter could rob Wilder of his power by taking the fight to him, pushing him back on his heels. The playbook is there now, his lucky fluke KO vs. Helenius notwithstanding.

Still frustrated that Usyk is proposing to waste everyone's time by fighting Wilder instead of Wardley or Kabayel....

 

Big power? Sure... Always found a way to land it, sure, almost always against lower level guys.

I mean, three is a stretch - even if we're being generous and ignoring Fury's condition in 1 & 3, the second fight wasn't tough at all... And like you say, 1 was a robbery and if Fury hadn't gassed he probably would've avoided the knockdowns.

We'll never know... Sure... But the hints suggest probably not, if you ask me - plus when it comes to levels, the higher you go, the less guys can make it... Which means for a given guy, the odds are generally against them being much better than they proved.

 

Best answer

 

Probably a mixture of all those intangibles. But Wilder is so hard to judge. I’m of the opinion he was limited but fairly dangerous at his peak. But because he never really stepped up to fight elite competition until Fury, it’s hard to gauge exactly how we would have done on a consistent basis. I suspect he would’ve lost quite a few but gained the odd power punch win. However, after the trilogy, he dramatically stepped up competition in Parker and Zhang and lost both decisively. He was obviously not at his best, but because there’s such little evidence to go on, it’s hard to say if he would have done better when younger (I suspect he probably would still have lost both). Ultimately Wilder remains a bit of an enigma, and that’s on him and his handlers - especially earlier in his career.

 

While I generally agree, most fighters play into Wilder's hands game plan wise.

For example, I think AJ loses more often than not against Wilder because he'd leave a lot more holes open by being careless like in Ruiz 1 and Dubios.

 

He was never that good and relied exclusively on Power, the first difficulties started in the fight with Ortiz, only for Fury to finish off Wilder...

 

Wilder had a game plan?