Tragedies of an Era (Era of Fury)

That's the line.

In reality, there's strong possibility that Wilder would've found excuses to turn it down regardless of the terms, split, etc.

Until the cherrypick gone wrong (Fury) he avoided every contender that tried to get fights made with him - at the time this was all conjecture, however justifiable, but with the benefit of hindsight it seems more likely than not that he just wouldn't have wanted to risk fighting someone at the level that Joshua appeared to be at (several levels above anyone he'd beaten at the time, or would ever beat)... Especially while the gravy train was rolling along nicely, getting lots of credit for holding a belt and knocking out third rate fighters.

We'll never know whether the Fury losses were what finally made him step up (to Fury himself, once he'd proven he wasn't completely shot - then to Parker and Zhang) or whether he'd have done it eventually anyway.

 

Frazier didn't fight Norton.

 

You forgot about AJ quitting against Andy Ruiz right when the fight could've been made.

 

And the common theme is AJ. Honestly if people can't work that out by now it is quite shocking.

AJ avoids Fury on record.
1. Deny 50/50 split for fight during Fury's comeback. From Hearn's mouth at the time.
2. Offered December fight 12 weeks out, wants to be A-side and makes it too hard. Chisora steps in.

How would AJ have corrected that? Give Fury 50/50 as comeback HW champion, which Haye did when Fury wasn't even champion. And take the gift title fight from Fury on their terms, which still would have been huge, since AJ had no belts and was coming off losses and didn't deserve an immediate title fight anyway.

AJ avoids Wilder on record.
1. Promises Wilder fight for Arab show, ends up fighting Wallin. No way Wilder didn't want that money fight with nowhere to go nearing 40.
2. Wilder calls for fight after Parker loss, AJ and Hearn ghost him.

It also makes logical sense AJ is the ducker in both cases because he was the biggest cash draw thus the most protected. And it was actually admitted they wanted to 'get his confidence back' after Usyk which meant he wanted safe fights at the time, not Fury and Wilder.

Now people point to Fury retiring and avoiding the AJ fight and pretend he's been ducking all along. It's laughable. It still wouldn't explain Wilder been avoided by AJ though.

 

AJ signed to fight Fury in 2021, so your entire post is rubbish. Again. You ain't tired of all those lies yet?

Wilder admitted he rejected the deal to face AJ and faced Fury instead, lol.

 

Wilder ducked AJ multiple times and was open about it, so I guess both Fury and Wilder were the ducks afraid of facing AJ and faced each other instead.

 

For good reason because they had the same management and trainer.

 

Entirely understandable that they fought each other at that point, even if both was intending to make Joshua the next step.

Fury wasn't fit yet, and knew it, so it made sense to fight the lesser champion and pick up a belt rather than face the more dangerous guy too soon on the comeback.
Wilder had never fought any kind of contender and drew poor crowds and ppv figures - it made sense to warm up for the bigger fight by taking on a big name in poor condition and both make a step up AND increase his bargaining power.

That's if either ever had any intention of taking the Joshua fight (and that's something we'll just never know unless they admit otherwise definitively).

In all honesty, both probably thought they were cherrypicking - and they were - it's just that only one actually benefitted from the trilogy.

 

Fury’s prolonged absence after beating Wlad robbed everyone of seeing how good he was.

The Fury that beat Wlad was very fast for a man his size, tough to hit and tough.

I think it would have been hard to beat him.

Wilder 2 was a great performance but Wilder 3 probably saw the remnants of Fury’s prime punched out of him.

it was a gruelling fight for both men.

Usyk would always be a tough style matchup because he was quicker, better technically, has a better boxing brain and perhaps above all he was the one fighter Fury could not get to with his mind games, a religious man who fears no-one but god himself (like Fury but without any of the bad habits Fury has had over the years).

 

So he ended up with a fraction of what he could have had. And if he has a single brain cell, he should have realized that he is a manufactured can-crusher who was lucky to be int he position he was.