Deontay Wilder Legacy

Never the dominant heavyweight in his era or great boxer. Some of his cherry picks like Molina and Duhaupas inflicted damage, even the Polish pin took a few rounds. His one name victim was close to a win in the first fight. I would be shocked if we see him again after October.

 

His legacy has been posted in a famous dossier out there...
Everyone knows it.

For me getting knocked down by DN takes the cake!

 

Stiverne was notoriously inconsistent in his career but his previous two fights before Wilder were victories over Arreola, a younger and fresher version of the same Arreola who went life and death with fat Andy and Kownacki in his most recent two fights. The calibre of opposition is also not the only consideration; it's partly about how you beat them and Wilder beat Stiverne 120-107 or 119-108 at worst while following a box and move gameplan.

 

Mediocre heavyweight champion who captured one of the alphabet titles. Known for a big right hand but not much else. Lost to the first top fighter he faced.

 

But Stiverne had rhabdomyolosis for that fight and spent the next two days in hospital being treated. It was well known he was horribly out of shape going into the camp for Wilder and probably pushed himself too hard, too fast to try and get into shape which is what likely caused his condition.

Personally I liked Stiverne, I genuinely think in the Arreola fights he was a decent fighter but after he won the title he mentally just quit and was never the same. He was probably never good enough to beat Wilder but Wilder beat a far inferior version of Stiverne.

 

Stiverne, who was never short of an excuse, claimed that he didn't drink enough water before the fight but dehydration (not to mention severe illness) usually has a considerable effect in worsening punch resistance. The version of Stiverne that Wilder beat the first time was clearly far more durable than the version he beat the second time and who went on to go 6 rounds with Joyce and 11 with Bryan while clearly in far worse condition weight-wise, as well as older, more worn and less active.

 

He was nothing more than the HW version of Andre Berto when he held a WW belt.

 

The dehydration excuse was given before he was medically examined and it was found he had Rhabdo and one of the causal factors for Rhado is dehydration, so yeah he was probably dehydrated. Stiverne very likely cut a lot of water weight to drop weight, had he been fully hydrated he probably would have come in a lot heavier on the scales. He was a beaten man the day he showed up to camp looking like a beached whale.

But yeah the first version even with a life threatening condition was still miles better than the shell of the fighter Wilder KO'ed 2nd time round. But still shouldn't be seen as Wilder beating the best version of Stiverne in that first fight, better than the 2nd version but worse than the one that KO'ed Arreola.

 

Depends what he goes on to do in his career. Right now he'll be seen as a kind of Razor Ruddock figure, a man with a huge punch who had a degree of success in the division but was ultimately never the best and failed at his first real test. He'll be used in what if fights a lot due to how potentially dangerous he could be to a lot of guys. But his actual legacy will be largely forgotten about.

 

Yeah definitely, he’ll be the go to opponent in fantasy matchups with any upcoming HW with a perceived glass chin for a while. Then probably pretty much forgotten once the next “hardest hitting HW ever” comes along.

 

Ruddock gave pre prison Mike Tyson a hell though. Besides dropping 60% Fury twice, Fury easily boxed Wilder up in the first fight and completely atomized him in the second. He even claimed that the second fight was "so easy" that he thought Wilders excuse might have been genuine back in spring of 2020

 

Huge KO rate will make him notable technically. Fury fights will be all he's remembered for, almost certainly unless he too fights Joshua later. I could see him getting a bit of a small cult following 20 years from now (ala Sonny Liston seems to have) if some KO reels are edited well.

 

His legacy will be a fraud who had a hard but over rated right hand.
He had no boxing skills and wild windmill technique.
Fought bum after bum and got found out when he came up against a washed up out of shape Fury.
In the rematch he was well and truly smashed against Fury who isn't even a big puncher. When he landed his punches on a fully fit Fury in rematch they had no effect.
He took his loss in the worst way possible, blaming everyone and everything from heavy walk in costume (after boasting of training in a weighted suit) to spiked water, to padded gloves ect ect ect.
Also boasted of wanting a body on his record but in reality that could have easily have been him if his corner hadn't thrown in towel in a massively one sided beat down.

Think that about sums up his legacy

 

I will remember him as a dynamite punching, relatively unskilled, but exciting fighter with great heart and enthusiasm.