Wilder is probably the most gifted athlete ever in the heavyweight division. Wilder cuts distance like no other fighter, he believes in himself and that he will get the knockout, he might be the most powerful heavyweight ever, he carries his power all the way and he is a natural fighter. His speed, power and stamina allow him to do things that no other heavyweight has done or can do. The way he cuts distance and gets an angle before an opponent can react is unique. Wilder is fun to watch, anything can happen. People should appreciate him while he is active, he's never been in a boring fight. EDIT: Ike Ibeabuchi might have been even equally or even more physically gifted than Wilder. They have different styles, but both are fast twitch fighters with excellent stamina.
Of course the uppercuts were the coup de grace. But that's obvious. But again what set that up? What did Foreman do to most of his opponents, but it was especially effective for Frazier. Something Wilder never does. ( he also doesn't have the ability to use the uppercut properly and his left hooks are slaps on most occasions) If Ali had continued to try to stay on his toes and fight Frazier from distance, he probably losses all 3 of the fights. He had to fight Frazier, which is a testament to his greatness and toughness, Frazier made him fight. To Ali's credit he out fought Frazier . Not one boxer was able to fight from a distance the entirety of a fight against Joe Frazier, Ellis and Mathis sr were excellent fighters and very skilled boxers , but Frazier ground them down. The answers too the Foreman questions is he used great leverage, great physical strength ( Foreman probably was physically the strongest heavyweight in history for sheer brute strength without steroids) Watch the fight, every time Frazier tried to set-up Foreman pushed him off balance, that was the KEY to the fight, he did what Duran did, ( Duran was also very strong physically and was more adept at wrestling his opponents , keeping them off balance, setting them up for his explosive punches, ask R.Leonard) Wilder doesn't do that. And the way he's built long lean body, skinny legs, very doubtful he could. And I ment no insult, apologies if you took it that way. But boxing is more than hitting your opponents more and harder than they hit you, their are intracracies to the sport most don't see. Boxing is very Vanilla today. Everyone is trying to fight the same way as opposed to fighting to their strength. Example is Foreman. Foreman was unusually strong for a boxer, he used that great strength to its maximum advantage.[/QUOTE]
I do, he's awesome to watch when he can display that power. But he gets outboxed so often, it feels like the power bails him out. If he wins the majority of rounds against an ancient Ortiz, I'll take him more seriously. Not just KO him while down on the cards.
He wasn't down on the cards against Ortiz. Wilder was up by one point on every card after nine rounds (85-84) when he stopped Ortiz in the tenth. The only time Wilder was down on the cards in a fight when he scored a knockdown was going into the last round against Fury. And the final round knockdown earned him a draw. Otherwise, he was always ahead when he scored a knockout, unless the knockout came in round one. Even your reason for not taking him seriously doesn't make sense.
This has to stop now. I'm not talking about picking the winner in this fantasy fight, but calling Wilder "Wilder is the most efficient KO artist the heavyweight division may have ever produced" is a big exaggaration. He's very powerful hitter with good sense of distance and he's quick. He also fought 3 ranked opponents in his career and two of them lasted distance with him (granted, one of them got destroyed in rematch but he was in way worse form). So far his biggest accomplishement is knocking out Ortiz who is really good, but old and unproven fighter. His second most impressive one is knocking down Fury, because without it he would definitely lose this fight (and should have lost it anyway). I don't hate Wilder's style. He's unique and I like unique fighters. I don't like his personality but that doesn't matter here. He's underrated by a lot of posters on this forum. He's also overrated by a few (Dubblechin included) too. He's not the greatest puncher in HW division history because he didn't prove his skills at the highest level yet. Some people called him SHW version of Bob Fitzsimmons but where is his ability to adapt? So far he's been fighting only one way and I don't see in him good strategist. How can I say that he's better puncher than Joe Louis who stopped almost all relevant HWs in a span of 10 years? Not to mention that Louis looks much better on the film than Wilder does, much more versatile offense with less weaknesses. I would like to see Wilder against someone quicker than him. Maybe Usyk, maybe someone else but it probably has to be smaller opponent. He's fast and I can't deny that but how would he fare against someone faster than him? I would also like to see him against good swarmer before picking him over Frazier. Joe wouldn't give him the space he needs and loves, so how would he adjust? He's not strong enough to push around Frazier like Foreman, he would have to use different strategy. I'd like to see what strategy, because he wouldn't outbox Frazier - that's a sure point.
The most gifted athlete in heavyweight history yet he got comprehensively outboxed by a guy 2 fights back after a 3 year hiatus in which he binged on alcohol,drugs and what not and ballooned more than 100 pounds from his fighting weight. I'm not seeing it.
Exactly. The judges even had him up vs Washington when its clear GW was giving him a drubbing. The draw vs TF was ridiculous, its clear Fury gave him a boxing lesson.
I'm sorry. Did you just say that Baer's technique wasn't comparable with Deontay Wilder? In a negative way? No elite HW fighter in any era has been technically worse than Deontay Wilder
I never said anything about him getting up or bouncing off the canvas so all respect but I don't know what you're talking about. I personally think Wilder's right really isn't far in power from George's and in fact might be in both technique and execution not dissimilar to Shavers'. I'm keeping in mind that there is a relativity factor here: George was from an era of smaller heavyweights...Wilder is a big, big man. That alludes to commensurate force.
I'd say it's a toss-up between Baer and Wilder as to who has the worse technique and why. Two guys getting by on sheer physicality in a crappy era.
That is even, if not for the KD earlier. At 6' 7" and in his prime Deontay Wilder was run even by an old Cuban. He was also down on the cards in the Gerald Washington fight. He was getting badly out jabbed and out boxed by a fringe top 15-20. But once again this has nothing to do with him fighting Joe anyway.
Wilder is a tall, tall man. George is big. Doubt Deontay will be lifting livestock any time soon. I mean look at him. http://i.imgur.com/AXVKmnj.jpg
Artists depiction of Prime George Foreman on steroids. http://stereochampions.com/wp-conte...n-Strong-Stereo-Champions-How-To1-670x435.jpg
