Deontay Wilder - Will he make the Hall of Fame? (Video)

I wouldn't right it off, it's not that ludicrous, the HOF doesn't just induct the best but those that had a significant role to play in the era and love him or hate him you can't ignore the fact he was a major player and factor in this era of heavyweight boxing.

In terms of achievement he doesn't deserve to be inducted but in terms of his significance in this era of heavyweight boxing he could be inducted. But obviously he would not be a first ballot inductee and Fury, Usyk and Joshua will be inducted before him. So it will likely take quite some time and a year without much competition for him to get enough votes to be inducted.

 

he got dominated by Parker... He will probably get in because he is an American and the HOF is here in the U.S. but the dude is a modern Primo Carnera he finally stepped up to good competition and was found lacking.

 

lol...I didn't realise just knocking people down but not necessarily out was a criteria for getting in the HoF.

 

Everyone keeps bringing up Arturo Gatti as the primary reason why Wilder will get into the hof at some point. It’s a poor analogy.
Gatti died tragically well before his time that likely influenced voters. On top of that Gatti engaged in 4 fights of the year. Wilder shouldn’t even be mentioned with Gatti who actually had the nerve to face the best fighters in the world like De La Hoya and Mayweather while being somewhat limited himself.

 

Totally agree with everyone that Wilder has been to protected; and boasts a relatively weak resume.

Still think in his heighday; he would have given anyone a hard time. He just needed to land proper.

Would have loved to see him take on Klitschko, Ruiz, Joshua or Hrgovic.

 

Pretty much. Now if the question were "Does he DESERVE" to be inducted, I'd vote no personally. A high KO ratio over mostly just journeyman and a trilogy where he didn't win a single fight would not be enough for me. He has an impressive looking resume as far as stats and stuff go, but that's only impressive on a surface level. Any sort of deeper analysis reveals it to be sorely lacking.

But as we both said, he's an American Heavyweight, and the most successful one in recent memory. Is that success manufactured for the most part? Yes, and if the panel were made up of people like a lot of the folks here, it would be seen through pretty easily. But to the people who are voting when the time comes, it's very likely they'll just see "Only Successful American Heavyweight of the 2010s" with a high knockout ratio, who got a very heavy promotional push with those things as the focus, and be swayed by that. Like with most "Hall of Fame" type things, the emphasis is more on the fame than anything else, and someone with great promotion like his already has a leg up in that regard.

 

Sometimes it isn't won in the ring either, when the 'line' is broken! Another reason why it's so problematic IMO, as it can rely on consensus \ media promotion rather than clear cut victories. But thank you for replying. It's fine to agree to disagree(!) Respectful debate and discussion between fellow fans is what makes the sport so interesting. Keep up the great work.