Zhang's crazy overrated for a guy whose "proven" by fighting other unproven fighters. It's a good matchup, picking apart Wilder's resume is dumb. Zhang's resume also features a heap of flash in the pan ranks at best. Among them at least Wilder took out a champion.
So is everyone who Wilder beat whilst he kept the WBC strap hostage... And aside from 1, nobody regards any of them as contenders. Szpilka had some skills, but a very shaky chin and not much power... Gatekeeper at absolute best.
If you class the Penguin Stiverne as a champion then you also have to acknowledge prince Charles martins reign of terror as a heavyweight world champion. They both won vacant titles and both lost them on their first defence.
Rooting for Zhang, but i think if Wilder has a decent gameplan, he had a chance of winning this. Just try to be on the backfoot, and lure Zhang into one of the big Right hands of yours, and if you can't take him out, just tire him out. Zhang has a cardio for a bout 5-6 rounds in a low pace fight. And both fighters usually fight on slow pace. I think Zhang was all wrong for Joyce, as Joyce was coming forward and was eating counters for breakfast. Also Joyce is slow ***. Still Zhang is a better boxer, and Wilder ain't very smart, so if Zhang manage to lure Wilder to throw his right hand to counter Zhang, and instead Zhang make Wilder miss, and counter him on his own, it could be over for Wilder. I never rated Wilder chin highly, so if Zhang connects clean, it's 100% over for Wilder. And we also will know how powerful Wilder really are, as Zhang maybe 40+, but his chin is good. I don't think he had a granite or even iron chin, but he had a good chin. I love this fight to be fair, love it.
Looking at Wilders Resume outside of Fury, pretty much all tin cans bar a old Ortiz. Wilder is the definition of a Hype Train. My Prediction in this one would be Zhang to win by KO inside of 3. Who has everyone else got?
I don’t think this is about levels. Wilder seems shot. Zhang showed his level but otherwise he is still intact. Has Zhang ever gotten up from the canvas to battle on? That might be interesting to see. Wilder is definitely capable of that. Hopefully it will be a battle with multiple knockdowns on each side ending in the 8th round. I will go with Zhang as the winner.
Parker style was bad for Wilder. In theory Zhang should fit much better. He is slow on feet, he is big and he like to forget about defence. Wilder always looks best vs this kind of opponents. Big and slow. That's because he can pretty quick land his full power right hand. That's why he looks better than Joshua with Helenius or Breazeale. But Zhang got few atributes that giving him his chance here. 1. He got extremely quick and heavy hands. He is probably on similar level as Wilder himself on punching power. If he will able to land smth on Wilder might be very interesting seeing Deontay took this kind of power. He will be for sure hardest hitter Wilder face since sparring with Wład 2. Zhang got iron chin. He took hard hitting Hrgovic shoots all night and doesnt look serious heart. But end of the day Joyce was called next Wach also and we know how this end. There is not people who can took anything without consequence. This is always balance on thin line. Special in the ring with Wilder. 3. He is southpaw. Wilder got some problems with them in past. Wilder is not soo agresive as Hrgovic. He is more like sniper in the ring. With all information about Zhang he will be much more caution also. He will on backfoot trying catch Zhang when he will cut distance and as 20% quicker dude he will have many opportunity. 60-40 for Wilder
Joe Joyce's plan was to fling himself into Zhang's power shots repeatedly, until he got tired from punching him in the face... really bad plan. Parker's plan was to throw fast one twos from range and outpoint him, he only screwed up twice and damn near paid the price... really good plan. Wilder's plan will be to take zero risks, retreat constantly looking for a chance to land the perfect counter, not all that dissimilar from what he did against another old ass southpaw Luis Ortiz... if he avoids getting caught like he did against Ortiz in the first fight, which granted is a big if. Then he most likely wins this by KO. Parker, Hrgovic and Forrest all stunned him, if Wilder connects clean with a straight right on a tiring Big Bang. It's over.
The problem is Zhang's resume is pretty awful too when you really look at it. He's only fought 5 fights against top-200 ranked fighters, which is very thin to start with... Then you realize he's 2-2-1 in those fights. Win: Joyce x2 Lose: Parker, Hrgovic Draw: Forrest Considering Joyce was overrated at the time, though still decent, and Hrgovic is otherwise very unproven... It's a damn thin resume. Don't get me wrong, Wilder's a ridiculously hyped fighter with extremely limited skills and ring IQ - but let's not pretend he's fighting a super proven guy, either.
Joyce was not overrated. Or maybe different. He was overrated by people who put him in top 2 even. But he was pure legit top 10 or even higher. He win with few good names from past like Stiverne, Takam, Jennings (not best performance), Hammer. He also beat other Young rising "star" in 50-50 fight where people think he will lose (Dubois). And most important he beat today top 4 fighter like older brother (Parker) without any trouble. Pls stop write this nonsense that he is overrated again and again. Zhang beating him twice in that fashion was really big deal. I think its same level that Wilder beating old Ortiz twice in much worse performance. End of the day he destroy Parker and Wilder lost almost 12-0 with Joseph. But end of the day boxing is about style too and that's why Wilder is favorite with Zhilei. But You must remeber that Wilder is poor at defence also and Zhang is most powerfull dude he will face. If he can counter Wilder right time (he was able to catch very very caution Parker) he can wobbled him and even KO him.
