Deciding who's rank 3.... - Joshua vs Wilder

Bodybuilder > Basketballer

 

If you base your ranking on predominantly resume, meaning that fighters proven ability then I can't see how you can have Wilder above Joshua, it's not even close.

Only way you can rank Wilder above him is if resume as a criteria is less important than who you think might win the fight. Personally I don't agree with that, but that's just my opinion.

 

I would rank Wilder higher currently.
AJ has lost 2 of his last 4 fights and both of those were against fighters who I didn't have in top 5 (or even top 10, in Ruiz case) going in against AJ.
Wilder has lost his last 2 too but to a single top 3 guy who I have at #1.

 

If you go back tp 2018 and before, yes, we can see AJ has better record. But on recent form, not really.

Be fair to Wilder, although I enjoyed seeing him beaten up, he did come close to KOing Fury at one point there.
AJ never looked to be ahead against Usyk from what I recall.

I base rankings on recent form ie. last few fights.
Not what they did 5 years ago.

 

AJ is about to get knocked out. Wilder has lost, but to the best HW in the world.

Really hard call.

Fury
Usyk
Wilder/AJ
Whyte

 

See my comments above.

 

In order to have Wilder ahead of AJ you'd have to rate Fury so highly that you'd be ranking Wilder on the basis that he knocked Fury down a few times across 30 combined rounds, while winning maybe 5 rounds in the entire trilogy, getting stopped twice, and in most peoples eyes losing all three fights. I mean, I know Fury is good but is he THAT good? didnt he get knocked down by Steve Cunningham too? who else in the top 10 has he fought since he came back?

 

AJ has a KO over 39 year old Pulev and a points win over a fat Ruiz in the last two years. He lost to then-unranked Ruiz before that, by brutal TKO. And he lost cleatly in his mostly recent fight, to Usyk.
It really is not unreasonable to rank Wilder higher right now, even though he was battered by Fury in his last 2 fights.

It is close but I would have Wilder above right now.

Better still, have them joint 3rd and let them fight it out.

 

Wilder would obviously knock Joshua out. Joshua can't take a punch and was battered by Rice Pudding Jr.

 

But aside from Fury, Wilder didn't fight anyone young or good.

 

Wilder needs to fight a live body next. Maybe he will go the slow boat to China route again but he doesn't have the time. He should aim for Whyte, Ruiz types as the contenders in the division so he can get back into the running for championship fights. However, if AJ loses rematch, an AJ vs Wilder fight would certainly be entertaining and end plenty of speculation on this forum.

AJ is ahead in the rankings because Wilder's bum squad resume just doesn't stack up. Sure Wilder lost to Fury, who is probably top 2 but can be confirmed with a unification fight, but he lost. He fought bravely, but was koed.

I don't dislike Wilder, but he needs to fight some live bodies.

 

Time will show that Usyk is by far the best of this era, and that Joshua's loss to him was nothing to be too ashamed of.

Joshua is the number 3 by an absolute landslide... and in my (probably unpopular) opinion, would have beaten that Fury from the other night.