I completely understand that thought, but we don't ever look to the ring magazine rankings when discussing worthiness of challenging the WBC champ. We look at the WBC rankings. I think the ring rankings are probably alot more accurate personally, but we also have to take into account how the fights are actually made as well.
All 4 are HOF in my book. Byrd and Tua are complicated because they did a bunch of regional stuff. But I would otherwise have Wilder higher. Chagaev ranks high in his era but he doesn't have an enourmas abundance of acheivements or anything. His two title defenses after beating Valuev were Drummond and Skelton. Wilder has a better resume than him. Gasps of shock in the crowd audible sound of posters passing out. Wilder knocked Fury down 4 times and outpointed him in their first point. He beat WBA interim champ Luis Ortiz. He belonged.
No one will dispute that. The ring is the closest thing to the gold standard. But the WBC rankings matter more to the WBC champ in the business of retaining the WBC belt. For what its worth I only consider Wilder a real champ after he outpointed Fury in the first fight and don't think his title opponents before Ortiz were anything to write home about.
I’m not sure about the timing of Arreola/brezeale. I can check at some point. Anyway, If it’s “at the time of fighting” you can remove a fair few off AJ aswell then. To keep our judging consistent, as we are fair people. We don’t want to have one rule for one fighter and another rule for another.
What?! No credible scorer who knows the first thing about boxing thinks Wilder outpointed Fury in their first bout. The only reason it didn't end as a loss on points was because of a very clearly cooked card in Wilders favour which became a comical wide card for Wilder when Fury gassed and the hitherto unexpected late knockdowns happened. In no world did Wilder win that on points. Even a draw is a stretch - he was thoroughly outclassed by an unfit and extremely rusty Fury.
Count the scorecards. Wilder scored 2 more points than Fury did. Thus he outpointed Fury. The rules state it was a draw but Wilder outpointing Fury is a factual statement. Wilder scored 2 knockdowns. Fury scored none but won most of the other rounds but Wilder won at least 2 of them. Its hard to argue someone clearly won a fight with a 2-0 KD ratio.
Except the only reason for the cumulative points (which are in no way relevant) is because of the corrupt 115-111 card in Wilders favour. If you're actually going to seriously suggest Wilder was anything other than extremely lucky not to lose that fight once it went to cards, you're completely incapable of thought and I'm done with you. Some referees would've waved it off when Fury took so long to get back to his feet... That's a different question. But as far as how to score that fight? Absolutely no way is a card where Wilder wins under any circumstances justifiable - it's just not.
Wilder doesn’t belong in the conversation, I was hoping that he would drop off the map. But he’s only been talked about in nonsense debates like this. Hof the guy kidnapped a belt and fought no one, he made no attempt to unify. He thought he caught fury sleeping, and only fought him because he was in bad shape. Ortiz was about to snap him in half until the referee called the doctor to check his invisible cuts at the start of the 8th in the first fight. So that should have been him done. Worst champion in history. Good riddance.
yes, he belongs with those that can't beat fury, and those that cant beat aj, and those that cant beat usyk. while evander, would only be in a real fight vs usyk.