I definitely feel he has it in him to go down as the greatest ever HW from Tuscaloosa if the cards fall right for him.
An all-time great probably would have fought and beaten Povetkin at some stage, found a way to make the Joshua fight happen, actually beaten Fury, maybe even made a fight with Wlad. 'All time great' I think is getting mixed up with 'one of the top HWs of his era'.
Wilder's ceiling is, like all undefeated heavyweight champions at some point, can he become the greatest heavyweight who ever lived? His ceiling is THE VERY TOP. He's 33. He'll be 34 at the end of the year. Realistically, he could still be a top heavyweight until he's 39. He hasn't taken any bad beatings. Power is the last thing to go for most fighters. That'll take us to the mid 2020s. If Wilder never loses and gets to 2024 or 2025 with 50 wins and 49 knockouts and 20 or so WBC title defenses ... he's in the running for the very top stop. I don't care what anyone here says, that's true. If he beats Fury. If he beats the guys coming up like Joyce and Yoka and Ajagba. If he unifies. Or maybe he'll get a trilogy with someone like Fury that rivals the great heavyweight trilogies of the past. It's all still available to him. Will he go undefeated for the next five years and keep knocking guys out? We'll see. But the VERY TOP SPOT is still there for him to reach. So his CEILING is still THE BEST HEAVYWEIGHT EVER. The guys up there in the top spots now, Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali, have their flaws and losses and so-so wins, too. We just have to see how it plays out. But anyone who says his CEILING is top 40 all-time or top 20, is being ridiculous and they know they are being ridiculous. How many guys ever made nine successful heavyweight title defenses? You can add them all up on two hands. Wilder's ALREADY in that group. And everyone in that group is rated higher than freaking Top 40 all-time.
ease up, those are some lame guys you mentioned. Why so? Cant just go around knocking the world champion with doofuses who stand no chance of wining a world title too under normal circumstances, they are very like wilder. but iagree u cant call him a top hw in the all time lists.
I can understand people believing he should rate higher than top 40 if he accomplishes those goals. Depending how much higher up would dictate how much I thought it merited debate. Right now his legacy is still very nil. Both Fury and Joshua have a leg up on him in that they fought Wlad. And in the case of Joshua also Povetkin. Fury fought Wilder and after a long layoff gave a brilliant performance that most felt he earned the win. That draw - really helps Wilder’s career in the big picture. That can’t be understated. Where would he be, right now if Fury had been given the decision? Likely very much out of the mix. As we know belts don’t mean much to Fury he would probably ditch the belt and wait to fight the winner of Joshua vs Ruiz. The wbc vacant belt would then be up for grabs. In short Wilder’s career has already been thrown a major life line. He’s basically receiving a do over. (And as recent history shows the winner of the do-over fights are often hailed as the superior fighter despite being the fighter that required the second bout to begin with-nor is any thought given to the psychological affect of the fighter robbed of their rightful victory in the first place- they almost always fare worse in the rematch but I digress) Wilder is about to be 34 years old - he has yet to reach number 1 heavyweight status in his career. In previous generations that’s old but heavyweights have skewered success at later ages in more recent times. I guess anything is possible but at this time I find his career to be far more style than substance. We shall see how it unfolds from here on out.
