Did Tyson Fury mess up the negotiations? The arbitration thing was annoying but that was out of his hands. I think the covid issue with Wilder is genuinely a fair thing to criticise though.
Because Fury did not look like a remotely dangerous fighter at the point where Wilder signed for #1... he was always going to be rusty and only partly fit, making him a much less dangerous proposition than he would otherwise have been. It looked like an easy way to get a shot fighter on the resume that could be used to boost his credentials - and it nearly worked, too. Why didn't he run after #1? To be honest, I think Wilder figured if he could hit Fury in the first fight he'd be able to in the second and hopefully he'd stay down this time (not figuring on Fury reinventing himself, though to be fair nobody did) - that and it looked really bad to only still have the belt because of a robbery.
True - it's not necessarily Fury's fault for assuming (as many people did) that the judge would come down on his side... Honestly, I still can't quite fathom how he didn't. It was pretty plain to see how pissed AJ was that the fight wasn't happening, though - as much as many of us think Fury would've won, Joshua is desperate for that undisputed fight. On top of everything else, that just hammers the final nails in the coffin of the BS notion that Joshua was the one ducking Wilder, for me at least.
He was in great shape for his age, but his timing and speed were way off. He did not look even close to his best that night, and had not done for years.
Wlad was getting the crap beat out of him and about to go, an uppercut nearly took his head off, he didn`t complain about the stoppage, he was finished.
Around about 2010 he still had his athleticism, timing and speed. He had also mastered his style then too.
If AJ is a fraud, pretty much every other current HW must be too, since he has the deepest resume of all of them.