Here are the facts about Wilder, when asked about unifying with Wlad, Finkel said no, ducked Wlad, this was a pattern we've seen throughout his reign. Ducked Whyte and ducked Joshua and let's not even begin with how he went years without facing any mandatory that wasn't hand picked. Fact is his best win is still Ortiz, his next best win after that is probably an ill Stiverne. Fact is Joyce already has a better, deeper resume than Wilder after 15 fights. As for Wilder's power, yeah he hits hard, I'd say he is definitely the hardest one punch hitter of this era but fact is he's never busted a truly good chin. Stiverne, stopped before, Breazeale stopped before, most durable guy he's fought ate several of his hardest punches and got right back up and beat him. Wilder's power like his entire career has a big question mark over it because he hasn't tested it enough times against the top guys just hand picked opposition that had been stopped before, with the exception of Fury who ate every bomb, got right back up and then proceeded to put a beat down on Wilder.
My metrics of an ATG are the following in no particular order 1. Title defences 2. Willingness to fight anyone 3. Number of meaningful fights (win or lose) 4. Ability to overcome adversity in fights 5. Strong character 6. Great defensive skills 7. Ability to think on their feet, change game plans within fights 8. Great timing, power, accuracy & combinations By these metrics Fury falls short at the moment, Usyk, Joshua, Joyce and Sanchez and he would cement himself. If he beats Usyk and AJ he’ll definitely be in the discussion.
Agree. The fighters will ranked and judged once they end their career, not while ongoing. Good way of judging a fighter, just can be tricky to play if one of the metrics is great, but other is not.
I rate Fury as a potential ATG head to head.... But heres the thing, you simply can not know how good a fighter really is until he consistently faces high quality opposition. You can make guesses and have some flimsy opinions about how they would do against other elite fighters, but until its shown in the ring, against top tier opposition, its a very shallow gauge to go off of. Fury's resume is one of the worst resumes in heavyweight history relative to his potential historical head to head standings. How much of Furys apparent formidability is based on the level of fighters hes consistently fighting is, at this point, a complete unknown. That is why resume is so important. And if you dont have a solid amount of top tier opponents to shape your resume with, the next best thing is having a deep resume filled with an extensive list of solid top contenders. Fury has neither. The guy has beaten a 39 year old Wlad that had been on the slide for years already, a Wilder that people forget was considered a laughing stock of a champion pre Fury, and Chisora. Thats it. In a career that has now spanned how long. And until that changes, ranking him as an ATG is a bit hyperbole, imo.
If Douglas had gone on to beat Tyson another two times and beat someone like Holmes who like Klitschko was considered “old” and then went on to defend he would be.
The lineal title is more important than the alphabet belts. Anyone can get an alphabet title but the lineage is much harder to hold.
Fury is one Usyk fight away from an ATG conversation. At least he can say he fought the best there was in front of him. Fighting Joshua is unnecessary but of course would make him money.
Why? Best his best wins are 40 year old Wlad and Deontay Wilder. He won 3/4 belts in 2015 and ducked the rematch to retire for 3 years and since his comeback he's only beat one good fighter who's got a **** resume. If Wlad isn't getting into the top 10 ATG's then Fury isn't.
If he is as good as he likes to shout about he would only want to fight the Ukrainian. Undisputed should be almost an obsession for him, the ultimate prize. Apparently he can beat him and AJ on the same night!!! He needs to start acting a bit more respectfully towards the sport and his fans. Pursue that ultimate prize and nothing else. Win that then a few fights to clean up the division, retire after that with everything and maybe, just maybe a place in the ATGs.
