Usyk has legitimized Wilders legacy.

I don't think his ranking reflects how he would actually do in fights with these guys.

I don't dispute that most people had Wilder ranked ahead of these guys

 

Lots of rankings had Wilder high - he was undefeated and had a belt, those things tend to result in a high ranking even if a resume is undeniably thin.

The question isn't where Wilder was ranked at the time, without the benefit of hindsight - we know that... We also pretty much know, with hindsight, that he wasn't remotely near to being as good as his fans thought, and realistically he wasn't as good as most of us who weren't particularly fans thought, either.

The idea Wilder was ever #1 (a strangely popular opinion at one stage) is an absolute ****ing joke.
The idea he was top two at any stage looks pretty silly when you consider that he actively ducked two guys, was happy to have had an excuse to swerve a third (and then made it look silly by fighting a more undeniable drugs cheat) and took no interest whatsoever in trying to get a unification bout against a fourth (who later schooled him 12-0, despite having been in more tough bouts).

Was he ever top 3 or 4 even?

Top 5 (behind AJ, Pov, Parker and Whyte)? Maybe, at least for a while - not once Fury was back and making him look silly, certainly not once Usyk came into the picture... But for a while, probably around there.

 

Most importantly every OFFICIAL organisation had wilder ranked top 4 for several years (unless they couldn’t rank him for being a champion)

 

Well, yes he was. That’s what FACTS say when I look at OFFICIAL rankings

 

Not quite the same in terms of career options, but sure

 

From March 2018 to February 2020 Wilder was consensus top 3 and from June 2019 to February 2020 he had a shaky hold on number 1. First AJ and Wilder beat Parker and Ortiz. Then AJ got upset by Ruiz. Given that Wilder was the favorite over Fury in the rematch it stands to reason he was considered the number 1 HW for those 8 months.

And Wilder would be rated ahead of Fury not just because he almost knocked him out but because Fury had been out nearly 3 years. Fury was not facing a stronger SOS then Wilder especially if we compare 2018 and 2019 side by side.

Parker lost to Dillian Whyte, Whyte already had the AJ loss.

Ring had Fury 1st and Wilder 2nd. But Fury was their champion. Major regional champs at the time included Kabayel, Makhmudov, Dubois and Joyce. None of whom would be ranked in Rings top 10 until 2021.

 

About as much as Joshua legitimized Jake Paul

 

It's just nonsense, really, though...

If Fury wasn't rated highly then getting a robbery draw off him makes no sense for propelling Wilder above Joshua at all, given the vast gulf in achievements and resume.

Quite aside from which, only Wilder fans made Wilder any kind of favourite whatsoever to beat Fury - the draw was a robbery, as a result of one particularly obviously crooked card, and everyone knew it... That and it was clear Fury could still improve whilst Wilder realistically wasn't going to be able to.

 

Joshua lost to Ruiz and people were saying he was exposed and his career was over the same way they do when everyone loses their first fight nowadays. He was very plainly third.

Wilder almost knocked Fury out and its hard to cry robbery when a fighter got knocked down twice and didn't even lose. Even if was a robbery people saw Wilder almost knocking out the giant champion who'd beaten Wlad. The lopsided scorecard didn't make the fight a draw because it was lopsided any pro Wilder card would have done that. Regardless of the score of the "crooked card" if either of the other 2 judges had given Wilder another round he'd have won the fight. It was a close fight.



There was no "vast gulf" between Wilder and AJs resumes. Wilder had 10 title defenses and AJ has 8 title wins so its not like its even an 1/1 comparison. 5 of Wilders last 6 defences were really good in Washington, Ortiz, Fury, Ortiz and Breazeale. Stiverne is its whole other thing that was the WBCs fault. The bad title defenses at this point were in the rearview mirror in 2015 and 2017.

AJ beat Charles Martin for his title 2 Wilder common opponents, Wlad, Takam, Parker and Povetkin. He avenged the Ruiz loss but Ruiz showed up with the fattest BMI in the history of championship boxing. Then Pulev.

I know people don't care about counting stats anymore but Wilder has more wins, more KOs, higher KO rate, more fights, more rounds. Same number of losses. How many HWs are going to get 40 wins and 40 KOs the way boxing is set up right now?

Fury had more room to improve because of his various issues he was recovering from.

 

Um it wasn't a close fight like that - people were struggling to give Wilder 4 rounds, and you are suggesting two judges could give him 6 or more. That would just mean we had two obviously corrupt score cards instead of just one...

 

fury won the story of the fight, that’s all he won.

Fury was not throwing with power and was trying to outbox wilder, he landed 13 more punches and was down twice, once was almost dead and got a lucky ref decision.

you do know fury has a gift of manipulating his viewers with his charisma, his story’s and his wit. Much like many gypsys, gift of the gab. I’m saying this a complement as it’s a skill.

but outlanding someone by an average of one punch a round, and getting out on your arse twice, then screaming robbery, isnt really cutting it with how fights are scored.

 

You okay OP?

 

Yeah i must admit, I start to zone out whenever a fan talks about "the story" of the fight to wave away why their guy lost 8 of 12 rounds.

But hey, that explains why the PBC upload replaced the Mallignaggi commentary. They weren't happy with the "story" of the fight. Fixed that in post-production

 

Ironically this has become an example of what his career has been, in-spite of what his 2 or 3 sponsored fans bark about in eery wilder thread.