Hope you're right. Always a bit anticlimatic when someone doesn't come fully prepared for a fight like this, which seemingly was the case with Ruiz.
Wilder hits significantly harder than Williams or anyone Williams ever faced. I never seen anyone have such devastating effect with one punch against guys in the 235-255 lbs range as Wilder has.
Who says he cannot lose weight. It's up to Fury, ifhe wanted to he could be 245. He said he's not doing road work. How much of a gut Fury has remains to be seen. One way to look at it, Fury is the better boxer and hits hard enough to expose Wilder's chin. Fury says he's going to be aggressive. If he did build lean muscle, and fights like he says he will that could be a good plan. However, if he need to move and box to win, 273 pounds is not helping him at all.
I think Wilder is a much harder hitter than Williams. And I think this obvious. He also has a better chin. Williams was just another interesting contender who could never get past the top men. Perhaps there was potential for more, but potential isn't achievement. He broke Liston's nose, but Marty Marshall broke Liston's jaw, and Marshall actually did better against Liston than Williams did. I just don't see getting worked up about a guy who was slaughtered twice by Liston while failing to last a total of five rounds in two fights. Williams had one good round against Liston. That is it. And Liston and Williams would look small next to guys like Fury and Wilder. I think Wilder beats Fury tonight, but it is a close match up.
So you're saying Wilder hits significantly harder than Sonny Liston? Have you seen some of Liston's KO's? Guys dropped face first. Not buying that. Wilder has power, but failed to KO the two best fighters in their prime he has face so far. ( Fury and Stiverne )
I like Williams, but the adulation on this board for him is just loses contact with reality at times. Yes, he was a very hard puncher, but so was Cooney, Bonecrusher Smith, Ruddock, Morrison and Sanders. Doesn't mean they were that special fighters. The fact that remains that Williams best win arguably is a green Terrell. His best result might be the draw with Machen. He looked impressive, but doesn't have the wins to go with it and, no, he was never ducked as a deserving top contender.
The guys that drop face first from Wilder's punchers is about 40-50 lbs heavier than those that dropped face first from Liston's punches. That's the difference. Put Wilder in with CWs and LHWs and see what happens.
Chins aren't magically better at 240 than 210. Example, what did Tom Schwarz weigh when Fury ( who isn't a puncher ) obliterated him? Now take Ali at 210 pounds who Ko'd him in his prime. See my point? Wilder resume is thin with zero Ko's over top ten opponents in their prime. His competition level redefines belt milking, and although he won those fights, he was exposed in victory. In many cases power bailed Wilder out, but he was rocked, hurt, had a black eye, was being out boxed, ect....and the Ko came late. IF Fury, who coming in way too heavy stops Wilder, the comparison to Williams is valid. Two big punchers in their time with shaky chins. Skill wise, Williams is better, and they both weight about the same starting out as pro's, didn't they?
Okay. I don't have s good fell for this fight. I think Fury if he was in shape wins, but he's not. The question is many of Wilder's wins were late KO's, Fury has proven at least a solid chin.
Wilder broke his right hand when he floored Stiverne in their first fight. With two good hands, he knocked him out in one. And Wilder could knock out Fury tonight, and he'll have knocked out everyone he's fought as a pro. I have no idea why you've latched on to this Cleveland Williams thing. They are nothing alike at all. Physically, stylewise, power, chin, speed ... or any way. Williams was floored more than 20 times in his career. (Wilder's been down once officially). Wilder has one of highest ko percentages in heavyweight history. Williams was a good heavyweight puncher (60 kos in 94 fights), but what are his most impressive ko wins again? I just don't see it at all.
His resume is fine. People just keep moving the bar. He's knocked out the top rated Luis Ortiz twice and floored him four times, and conclusively stopped him, and people say Ortiz isn't prime. If Ortiz had won either fight and had become the WBC champion, I'm sure people would've viewed the period when Ortiz was the champ as Ortiz's prime. He's fighting the 31-year-old, #1 rated undefeated heavyweight tonight for the lineal title tonight. If he knocks him out, they'll say Fury isn't prime. If Fury wins, this is Fury's prime. That's what people do.
All of a sudden it's "magical" that chins would improve past 210? Priceless. What really would be magical would be if chins improved from 150 to 180 and 180 to 210 but then just stopped for some reason. You don't think Wilder's KO's would be even more emphatic if he competed against CWs without weight restrictions? And most of Liston's main KO's (Harris, Folley and Patterson) were in the 188-198 lbs range. Floyd would probably be a LHW today at the weight he was at back then. Harris and Folley would either cut down to LHW or be smallish CWs. Imagine letting Wilder loose among the LHWs...
I doubt Wilder vs Floyd Patterson would've ended well for Floyd. I doubt Wilder vs. Cleveland Williams would've ended well for Cleveland.
