Reports are Wilder eyeing Gassiev while negotiating for Usyk

"Gassiev beat fighters with historical standing"

I don't see it. He beat fighters, like 44 year old Pulev, who in absolute terms are worse than Wallin.

 

I gotta believe that Deontay can still crack some, but he's just always looked like a kid fighting on the playground to me. Chances are he loses a UD to Gassiev and ends up in the hospital for 2 weeks vs Usyk.

 

There’s a clear double standard here. Wilder is obviously clear of Haye, Gassiev and many others legacy wise. Usyk seems to think so too. Top 4 ranked at HW for 9 straight years, plus 10 consecutive defences over 5, counts for quite a lot. Even if, as in Vitali or Wilder’s case, most of the opponents were not stellar.

You indirectly admit this when you rank undefeated Wilder as Fury’s 2nd best win and Cunningham as Fury’s 8th, Wallin 9th. Cunningham beat Wlodarczyk, G. Jones, Huck. By your standard he is “historically significant”. Yet he’s 8th. And Gassiev-conqueror Wallin is even lower.

Implicitly, you rate HW wins above CW legacy wise. And this is rational, given that for instance Chisora gave Usyk a much better fight than Gassiev did and dominated Wallin at 41 rather than losing to him, with Joshua and Fury also doing much better against those mutual opponents.

 

"Their cruiserweight fights count as their natural weight class, and invading the heavyweight division is a special accomplishment for them."

And cruiserweight lacks prestige, which hinders Haye and Gassiev legacy-wise. How many HoF cruiserweights have there been who didn't make their name in the lower weight classses? Holyfield and Usyk. And even they got in largely or entirely on the basis of their HW careers.

There's a paradox in that Wilder could have started at cruiserweight (he weighed that in the Olympics at 22), snagged a belt, moved up to HW and got extra kudos because "he's really a cruiserweight".

Wilder's legacy clearly outstrips Haye's and Gassiev isn't even a footnote as things stand.

Implicitly you agree, or you wouldn't rank undefeated Wilder as Fury's 2nd best win and "legacy CW wins" Cunningham as Fury's 8th, Gassiev-conqueror Wallin 9th.

 

Wilder had a choice to fight at cruiser (one of the weaker divisions in boxing history) and could have quite easily done so, but chose to fight in the “unlimited” top division. Imagine his power at cruiser, where he would still be athletic

 

No way Wilder's team lets him go through with this. He takes this fight and he probably ends up on the canvas again and loses the Usyk fight and payday.

 

Great cruiserweights in their 20's don't get outboxed by Wallin.