Wlad-Haye was known as a mismatch outside of the UK. It had hype but it was not considered a 50-50 fight and for that reason lost some hype. Vitali-Lewis had literally no hype. It was on 2 weeks notice and nobody knew how good Vitali was at the time. Lewis-Tyson again was known as a mismatch. Had a general level of hype especially with the pre-fight stuff but nobody thought Tyson was going to win. Is there any post 97 fight that comes close to this one in terms of the hype factor?
For sure it is. Since it gets 90 000 viewers on the stadium. I hope it will be nice to watch... BUT since I know Klitschkos fighting style I don't expect something exciting. To be honest I was super dissapointed to watch Fury - Klitschko. Ugly and boring fight. A lot of non boxing fans will watch it for sure. Probably the biggest fight after Mayweather - Paquiao.
Anyone who had Haye as the betting favorite was delusional. Lewis-Tyson was in Memphis an obscure place for a fight of that magnitude and Tyson was shot. I would say 90,000 people make this fight a big event and add in an aging fighter who has dominated the Division for over a decade and a young up and coming champion who has brought some excitement to the division and you can see the recipe for this to be the biggest fight since Lennox vs Vitali. Even though that fight just went 6 rounds it certainly didn't disappoint. The unknown in this fight also makes it a big event. Can Joshua take a punch? Can he go the distance if he has to? Does he have a Plan B if things aren't going well for him early? Is Wlad shot? Can he still let his hands go? Will he be aggressive or sit back and try and take Joshua into deep water? All of these questions will be answered on Saturday.
There was more buzz around at the time for Haye / Wlad , but that was down to Haye being a great salesman. This fight is far more significant though and way more intriguing. Im looking forward to it something incredible. The atmosphere at Wembley is going to be immense. This content is protected
Wlad vs Haye was hyped trough the roof. This gets a bigger viewing audience, but the hype seems to be centered at the UK only.
Lewis Holyfield had more hype and that was deserved. Lewis Tyson, while a mismatch and undeserved, still had more raw hype.
No I don't think so. It's certainly the biggest HW fight since Lewis-Holyfield, but it's certainly HUGE in the UK.
I'm not feeling the same level of hype for this fight as for Wlad/Haye. While I'm sure it will garner a bigger audience and break attendance records I don't think this fight really has the same significance. Wlad isn't viewed as the best heavyweight in the world like when he fought Haye, he's coming off a loss. So the significance of this fight doesn't match that of Wlad/Haye which is maybe why the hype for this fight isn't as big, at least in my opinion.
Lewis never had the hype in UK of Joshua, not even close. When he was ko'd by McCall in 94 Wembley Arena was half empty. The only UK hw fight I can think of that had similar hype is Bruno McCall in 95 and even that was not near.
Maybe it is not the biggest fight in the USA , but for the rest of the boxing world , it certainly is the biggest heavyweight fight of the last 20 years. It is similar with the football world cup , the whole world is excited about it , but the USA doesn't care.
Bigger than Lewis/Tyson in 2002? I don't think so, even a shot Tyson is more famous than Wlad and Joshua combined. The fight had been highly anticipated for many years and casuals still loved Tyson back then, that combined with the biting incident, Tyson claiming he was going to eat Lewis children etc, the hype for this fight was huge even if in terms of significance it meant little.
