Joshua Could've fought Wilder last year

Parker beat Wilder with ease.

 

Yep.

And even the most charitable explanation doesn't help Wilder much...

The most charitable possible way to explain Ortiz ducking Joshua is that he knew he had a much better chance of winning the fight against Wilder and the trilogy bout (that then would've happened) because he'd already come a corrupt whiskers distance from winning the first bout - the controversy (creating embarrassment) being probably the main reason he was getting a second shot as it was.

Then, having beaten Wilder, he'd have been able to cash out for a lot more against Joshua for undisputed.


Obviously it didn't work out that way, but maybe he was desperate enough to have a much better chance of winning a belt to risk losing the big cashcow payday?


In any case, if Ortiz ever was a contender he certainly wasn't by that stage... And wasn't by the time of his first Wilder bout either... And probably never was anyway in all probability.

A manufactured hypejob made out to be more than he was in order to make Wilder's record look less pathetic... He wasn't without some skills, but he wasn't anything special either.

 

The fact he went life and death with Charles Martin shows that he was never good.

 

Keep in mind people still rated Wilder highly prior to the Parker fight and AJ was still on a bit of a rebuild, giving both fighters a tune up was a way of seeing where they both were at.

Parker on paper should have been a easy nights work for Wilder, pillow fisted so with the hype still somewhat there for Wilder most thought he was bound to connect over 36 minutes.

 

Looks like a mistake in retrospect.

 

Ali-sized Usyk just ragdolled and beat the best SHW of the moment. Tyson was all of 10lbs less than Usyk in his prime, hit harder than any current HW not named Zhang (or Wilder pre-decline), and had faster hands than all of them.

At his best, the only one of this era who I think would’ve had a shot against him would be Usyk.

In my hypothetical where he had the dedication of someone like Holyfield, he’d have got better, because he’d have fixed the glaring hole in his game (being passive and useless when clinched).

at least that’s my $.02 for whatever it’s worth. Which is probably $.02

 

The beloved "Breadman" did:

"Bread’s Response: This fight has me perplexed. I’m literally saying to myself WHY. Why fight a fighter, so close to Usyk in terms of style, when Usyk just beat you twice. So either Joshua is the most Gun Ho matchmaker in the sport, or he made a huge mistake. My guess is Wallin is good enough to beat Joshua, but I don’t know if he will. The judges will be a huge factor in this fight and with Joshua vs Wilder lurking….."

"Either Joshua is crazy for fighting Wallin or he knows something. He did beat Wallin as an amateur so maybe he knows something.

I disagree on Wilder vs Parker. I like Wilder by ko in the first half of the fight. "

Lots on here worship clueless ass Breadman lmao