The back foot might be fine for Wilder. The gap that Fury closed to get inside was nothing compared to what Frazier would have to do. Stiverne and Szpilka are still more relevant comparisons, and both were still significantly bigger than Frazier.
His defensive radar, feinting and reach are in no way comparable to Frazier/Marciano. Taking away an opponents punches from landing takes a certain skillset. Tyson would slip Wilders punches, the former 2 wouldn't and they'd pay for it imo.
Foreman v. Wilder would turn into a tough man contest, regardless of the winner (See the Lyle fight). Compared to George, Fury is much bigger and stronger (yeah I said it), and in possession of a level of finesse that only comes when you've been boxing since childhood.
Come on,Frazier would make him fight at a lot faster pace than Fury. He would put a lot more pressure on Wilder and is a ore effective Inside fighter/body puncher than Fury.
This one. I have been saying all along that Wilder is overrated on this forum. Wilder showed a ton of heart yesterday and should not now be disrespected. He also has built on a respectable career with a lot of title défenses. He just should not be matched against ATGs heavyweights as he is not on that level. He is among the biggest ATGs punchers but not fighters.
The fights aren't comparable. Fury's wrestling and leaning totally drained Wilder. In a fight with Frazier, Wilder would have a chance thrown before Frazier closed the gap and he would be the one doing the wrestling and leaning (if his team put a smart plan together).
Anything is possible but, given the fragility of 'One-Punch' Wilder and the proven chin and steel of Foreman, my money (and a lot of it) would be on Wilder needing to be peeled off the canvas, inside of three minutes.
Bullies do not like to fight backing up, it is viewed as cowardice, Joe Frazier fights forward and does not fear bullies, even in his losing effort against George Foreman in 1973, he did come forward. Frazier beats on Deontay's body like a drum, Frazier stops Wilder, round 6.
If Wilder didn’t back up in a straight line and had better footwork I would agree, but unfortunately he does and his lazy jab wouldn’t keep Frazier honest. I could definitely see Frazier trapping Wilder against the ropes and catching him with a left hook. When Wilder was at the fight factory my trainer, and Bernie Hopalian, who was Malik Scott’s trainer and my roommate Serio Nunez, who was an active fighter at the time had Wilder and Medzhid Bektemirov sparring and Bektemirov kept putting Wilder on his back. It took the head trainer Sal screaming at Wilder to set his feet right and to put his body at an angle, so he wouldn’t be such as easy target. After that Bektemirov stopped landing clean shots, but as we seen last night bad habits don’t go away so easily. Also, nothing against Stiverne, who is a tough guy and is a dangerous counterpuncher when he’s in shape, but besides his counterpunching he has no head movement and doesn’t cut the ring off well. Anber, who was one of Wilder’s trainers at the time of the first Stiverne fight assumed that going into the fight if Wilder just used a lazy jab and moved around Stiverne would just follow him around the ring and get outpointed, which later happened. Bugner isn’t much shorter than Wilder and had a similar reach and found out why it’s a bad idea to retreat against a guy like Frazier. When Bugner stood his ground and kept his punches short he badly stunned Frazier and was very competitive, but whenever he tried to fight at a distance it didn’t work, since Frazier was excellent at coming under lazy jabs and making you pay. Even Ali himself found out the hard why retreating in a straight line against Frazier is a bad idea and got put on his back in the first Frazier fight. Ali wisely kept the fight in the center of the ring in the rematches for the most part and stood his ground a lot more, which kept Frazier honest. Szpilka is a game fighter, but for the most part he was tailormade for Wilder as was Washington. Szpilka’s handspeed, him being a southpaw, and his mobility kept him in the fight for a while, but he had nothing to hurt Wilder with and Spzpilka doesn’t pace home self well, so Wilder just needed to wait for him to tire before going for the knockout. This strategy won’t work against against Frazier. Walking backwards in a straight line and trying to set up a Hail Mary right hand is a very bad strategy to use against Joe Frazier.
Interesting post, but Wilder back then wasn't the same as now. His peak has been roughly the last two years. He wasn't even favored to beat Stiverne because was so raw back then. The Bugner comparison doesn't check out. Bugner was 6'4 and not a great puncher. Wilder is 6'7 and we know about his power. Vitali pulled straight back and never really got clipped with a left hook. I don't recall it happening much to Wilder either. That isn't always such a liability for really tall, rangy heavyweights. It's too bad that the Povetkin didn't come off because that would've been a half decent approximation. Edit: Luis Ortiz has great extension on his left hand, as in best ever for a southpaw heavyweight, but failed to drop Wilder with it.
