Tyson Fury Never Dominated His Era..

Wilder was rated the number 3 heavyweight in the world for about 7 years by much of the general public. There's no evidence to support the idea he was ever that high ability wise and people are now questioning it with good reason

 

I'm confident the next generation can surpass Usyk

Id rate the Usyk era H2H above any prior heavyweight era and I think things are going to get even better. That's progress in my book.

 

You say “ by much of the general public “ so I’m assuming you’re not alluding to any sort of organized rating system. Was there a poll every year for seven years asking people to rate the heavies and did wilder always come up at #3 ?. And if the answer is yes then in your mind which two heavyweights in each and every given year were above him ?

 

Ring magazine I believe consistently had him at number 3 from circa 2015 until his loss to Parker in late 2023.

 

I agree that by about 2022 he was probably no longer top 3. But for most of those seven years he was rightly placed there. I don’t say this because Wilder was great. There just simply was never more than maybe two guys at most between 2015 to 2022 who were decisively better.

 

Maybe, but it's hard to say with the quality he faced. Was he better than Povetkin, Parker, Whyte and Ruiz? I find that hard to say. He did better against Fury than Whyte did and better against Ortiz than Ruiz, but with the same results mostly. And apart from those there are no points of comparison, until he lost badly to Parker and became shot overnight in manys estimate.

In the end, his resume is so thin that it's hard to say much other than that he was good against the C/D level.

 

That’s fair. He didn’t exactly fade overnight though. He started late in the game. Held a belt from 2015 until he was beaten ( legitimately ) by Fury in 2020. And it wasn’t until a couple years after that when he’d start losing to men not named Tyson Fury. The fact is there really weren’t any standout guys during that post Wlad era in the twenty-teens. The one thing that slightly set wilder apart from most of them is that he stayed undefeated, fought often, and won decisively. Calling him the #3 guy and even at times #2 for a 5-7 year period wasn’t preposterous

 

No, it isn't. Just hard to know.

It's a lot easier not to lose to men not named Tyson Fury when you only fight those at least two levels below. The exception was perhaps Ortiz, but that was touch and go. The ref's weird bungling might have been the difference in the first fight. The next time he fought someone just one level below Fury, it looked pretty much the same except he didn't land the killer punch. But Parker wasn't 40, either.

Any time he fought a good opponent he either lost or struggled badly. Now, you ca do that and be still be nr 3 for a several years, but it's hard to see it as very clear. But, yeah, there are no clearly better candidates, so I have no real problems with it.

 

I think we would have to favor Kabayel and Parker over him given what we now know. We know when they actually fought Parker won decisively. One would think Parker actually beating him counts for more than people believing Wilder was better.

Obviously Usyk would rate above him from the time he moved to heavyweight (2019 onwards)

 

I don’t know that Parker or Kabayel. Would have beaten wilder 6-7 years ago . Wilder was pretty old when he fought Parker and had taken a lot of wear and tear from the fury wars. Kabayel wasn’t doing much during the twenty-teens to warrant any kind of rating. Usyk didn’t earn his wings at heavyweight until he beat Joshua by which point the period in question was over

 

Occasionally, there are valid question marks over a boxer's universal rating, but no one else, bar Wilder, Fury, and Joshua was standing out by close of 2018.

Parker lost to Whyte in 2018 and Joyce in 2022. In between those occasions he was being run close by Chisora. It's only since Joyce that Parker has rebuilt and shown a resurgence from 2023/2024 onward. Wilder was an aged husk by then.

Kabayel has only just recently begun to prove himself at world level. Attempting to retrofit his prowess over rated fighters of four to seven years earlier seems a pointless exercise.

 

I'd rate Usyk's cruiserweight opponents ahead of the guys Wilder was beating at heavyweight. I might favor a few of them over Wilder himself. So not sure how Wilder beating journeyman at heavyweight should outweigh Usyk facing the very best at cruiserweight. Usyk by 2018 was already more proven than Wilder.