It's more of a thing these days than it was, say, 2-3 years ago. He went out very popular for starching Dillion, and I think its had time to enter the collective consciousness around here.
Damn! I just thought of him, but you beat me to it! Berlangas power seemed legit, considering that he went 16-0, all wins via T/KO in the first round, and against seemingly decent opposition - relatively speaking of course. Ulises Sierra had just gone 10 rounds with Vladimir Shishkin, and years later it would take Bektemir Melikuziev 3 rounds to stop him. Lanell Bellows was a decent low level journeyman who gave the occasional prospect a good fight, and he had never been stopped before. Cesar Nunez was a mediocre boxer, but at least he went 8 rounds before being stopped by Vincent Feigenbutz and Daniele Scardina - both of whom are pretty decent punchers on paper. Berlanga KO´d them all in the first round, with ease. This content is protected But nope, he went 4-0 with all decisions after this fight, against guys who were a clear step up in competition, but also guys who had all been stopped before. They clearly picked opponents for him who could be stopped, but Berlanga failed to do so. He has since gone 2-2, both wins coming via T/KO, but against lower tier opponents than the ones he went the distance with. Berlanga is just a weight bully, and his T/KO rate at 175 will likely be well below 50% once he makes the unavoidable jump in weight.
Great left hook but once he went up to light heavy his power wasn't like that no more and honestly at super middle the narrative around was a lot of American hype
I think it's fair to say everyone with a functioning brain knows how it would've gone - Wilder would've been annihilated, Sascha was way too skilled and way too aggressive for Wilder to handle. Likewise the Joshua fight - Joshua's got his flaws but it's safe to say he would always have won and still would. Wilder hit hard, but it's greatly exaggerated just how hard.
Povetkin definitely could've gotten koed by deontay it was a distinct possibility he always struggled with height and reach and deontay had both in abundance
"Joshua's got his flaws but it's safe to say he would always have won" I thought it was safe to say he'd always beat Ruiz: a light punching, sub-6 foot morbidly obese plodder whose best win was a close 10 rounder over a former titlist who Wilder had already KO'd in 1. I also thought he'd beat glass cannon quitter Dubois, though I was much less sure about that. AJ likely would have got KO'd by Wilder. I'd favour Povetkin but not with great confidence. His best wins (Whyte, Huck etc.) were at least a level below Wilder and he got KD'd by his four hardest punching opponents.
Not that much. Struggled with Joe Hipp and shot Carl Williams. Outgunned by Michael Bent. Not really.
Excellent analysis, Wilder is the first name who comes to mind here. He built his so-called impressive KO record on some of worst opponents a touted fighter has ever faced, and once he got a title faced carefully-selected, often chinny opposition after that. Wilder's punching power is far more ordinary than most seem to understand - very much a product of those he faced and thus, basically fraudulent.
Equally - there were levels between them in terms of skill, plus Wilder absolutely couldn't cope with being pushed backwards... He needed time and space, and a relatively static target, to land the knockout punch - Povetkin wouldn't have given him either of those things. Wilder had height and reach, but in general didn't use either of them in way that would've caused Povetkin issues. There's a reason Wilder didn't beat anyone on Povs level
He was always considered a light puncher. Arum his old promoted let him go partly for this reason. He thought "Ruiz didn't figure against Joshua because he didn't have a punch.", "Ruiz couldn't stop ham and egg guys." The only fighter Ruiz has stopped of any substance is Joshua. Joe Hanks is likely Ruiz's 2nd best KO and Joyce put him out in 1.