Wilder was the first USA upper weight fighter at heavy and super heavy to medal since....Bowe in 1992. Wilder won bronze. While he has good size, and some power, he needs to physically mature before and gain a lot of experience. Is he the next American world champion? The odds are against him, but he has a shot.
Very good points. My major red flag with Wilder, along with the inexperience, is that tall, lanky fighters almost always have chin issues at one level or another. He'd be better off trying to pack on some muscle as you say to get up to heavyweight than to stick around cruiserweight being that skinny.
Very true. If he does turn out to have a chin to go along with everything else, he'll have a hell of a base to build off of as far as physical attributes go, and that's half the battle. :thumbsup.
I don't want to get my hopes and dreams broken by getting 100% on the he is going to be great bandwagon, but I'm cautiously optimistic about him becoming a HW force in the future. I hope he gets a great manager who can guide him into being a great one.
This is a guy who they need to take it reaaaaaaaaaal slow with. I'm talking 15-25 fights with cans slow. He's not ready for anything major..and is still getting on the job experience.
Wilder is a total fraud! 5 voluntary title defenses in a row! Wilder has never fought a legit heavyweight. He is afraid of Povetkin, Ortiz, Whyte, Joshua, Parker and anyone who can fight at all, only winos from the alley!
It's so beautiful to see how Wilder turned into the great champion this thread predicted he would be.
Wilder has an alphabet strap but that doesn't make him a great champion. There are no "great" heavyweight champions at the moment because none have established greatness in the ring. I have to give the nod to either Tyson Fury or Joshua as being "the" heavyweight champion. Wilder needs to compete against the top opposition and win if he is to be considered great. It's a shame that the young titlists seem to be matched against aging veterans like 39 year old Stiverne and Pulev is no youngster. I think even Takam has quite a few years on him.