I'm talking of course about that tough era of the alphabet belts. If Wilder had beat, say John Tate for ex, how long could he realistically hold on for?
Not long at all. I doubt he could've cherry picked his way to 8 title defences like he's done during this era. I'd say 2/3 'easy' defences, then probably comes unstuck.
Problem rating Wilder is he could loose every second of every round going into the last second of the 12 and still land a shot to department his opponent from reality. Despite being rocked by lower tier fighters, only Fury has had him down and hurt and then finished him off. He's tough, clumsy and if he comes in around 225 decent stamina. Wilder is a very hard fighter to gauge head to head because his power is next level, his chin isn't granite but not glass either but his style is god awful and he can be outboxed.
I could see peak Witherspoon beating him. Weaver would be a live underdog with a significant chance of an upset. Are we assuming Holmes sticks with the IBF and doesn't unify? Then we can rule him out since the fight simply doesn't happen. We're also assuming Cooney and shavers continue with their original career paths? Spinks too? The only ones left are possibly Page or Thomas I guess and I wouldn't be confident that they hear the final bell. Limited as wilder is, he is more athletic than both with a significant height and reach advantage and has more than enough power to stop them at any moment.
John Tate? For the WBA belt? Longer than he held the WBC title (five years and 10 defenses). There wasn't anyone like the 6'9' 280-pound Tyson Fury in the 1980s. Probably until the HBO Tournament around 1987 when he came across a streaking Mike Tyson. Then again. Bonecrusher Smith rocked Tyson in their fight. Tyson was pretty green when the tournament began. Liked to rest in clinches. Wilder isn't a big clincher, especially against shorter fighters. Wilder could catch him and end it. Tyson didn't have a great heart, as we saw. Or maybe until Holyfield in 1990. Wilder would've been in his late 30s by then. Weaver was a journeyman who got hot for about a year or two. Dokes was fairly short compared to today's heavyweights, wasn't a big puncher and he was a coke head. Bruno was chinny. Page got knocked out twice by Mark Wills (who couldn't stop anyone) and he couldn't beat the likes of David Bey. Tubbs ended up getting wasted by guys like Lionel Butler and the caucasian Jimmy Ellis in a round. Witherspoon was an admitted quitter (read his bio). The WBA path wasn't stellar. Most of them had drug and motivation issues. Practically none of them gave a damn long enough to even make one successful defense. If Wilder had fought in that era, some of you haters would probably be comparing him to Joe Louis right now. If Wilder won the title from John Tate in 1980 ... Wilder probably reigns as the WBA heavyweight champion for seven to 10 years. Makes 15 to 20 title defenses.
If he and Holmes had agreed to a unification fight at some point, that's assuming he could hold on to a belt, it would be massive imo. Bigger than the Cooney fight. It could also turn in to a knock down, drag out war. Depends on how Larry plays it. But Larry wins, there's not a doubt in my mind. Holmes had heart, similar to Fury.
That's a big statement. That's putting him in the same category, as you say in Louis. Same as Larry Holmes.
None of those WBA champs in the 80s who held a belt for one defense or NONE, were exceptional. None are Hall of Famers. Wilder beat very similar types handily during his career. Honestly, they could've thrown a WBA Heavyweight Title belt to Helenius after beating Peter, Liakhovich or Chisora only to see Helenius lose it after getting stretched by Duhaupas or Washington. Thrown a WBA belt at the Adamek-Chambers winner, only for Adamek to lose it to to Szpilka or Glazkov. Thrown a WBA belt at the Ortiz-Jennings winner. Thrown a belt at Stiverne and Arreola.That's basically what was happening back then. Same calibre of fighters. Only they just kept passing things around from one fight to the next. Wilder didn't pass it around after beating one of them. He was above that. He just kept knocking them all out. I could easily see the same thing happening then. Wilder has never had weight issues. Drug problems. He didn't quit, like some admitted to. He didn't have problems getting motivated ... like they all seemed to have at one time or another. None of those WBA champs in the 80s were anything special until you got to Mike Tyson in the late 80s and then Holyfield in 1990.
He wouldn't last long. Weaver, Tubbs, Berbick, Dokes, and Smith likely beat him. Old Homes, Thomas, Tucker definitely beat him. Tyson and Witherspoon wreck Wilder. He might beat Greg Page on an off night. But, if Page is at his best, he likely stops Wilder, as well.
Well let’s see, if he beats Tate the next defence is Mike Weaver. now when did Wilder beat somebody as good as Weaver? I am not saying he can’t beat Weaver. I’m saying when did he? Same with the next guy. Michael Dokes. Now I am not saying Dokes was great. He had attributes that were real quality. He also was beatable. But I haven’t seen Wilder take that kind of guy out. I am not knocking Wilder here. He definitely can knockout these guys. Those guys got knocked out. And early. So there is scope for Wilder to win too. But I guess each time the odds are no more than 50-50 in his favour. I think that’s fair. Even the greatest fighters of all time can’t come through that many times on those kinds of odds. So I recon Wilder, if he beats Tate, really is not going to be around that long as a defending champion during that era. Because those kinds of guys, Weaver, Dokes, Coetzee, page, Tubbs…Tubbs wilder has better odds against…then we have Witherspoon, Smith..and Tyson. That would be the next seven defences. these guys were live! Wilder won’t be matched to win like he was in his title reign. They are all more seasoned than the men Wilder defended his title against.
I think he could have put together a decent streak. One thing about wilder is that he always shows up in great shape and ready to fight - a problem with many of the 80’s crew. He’d also bring some size, power and durability to the game. Tim Witherspoon would likely be his biggest problem.
