More Notes on Historic Aspects on how great AJ V Wlad and Wilder v Fury was

We're really lucky to have had two such all time classic, great HW fights in the last couple years. I've seen a lot of the virtues of both fights already laid out there, but here are a couple I don't think I've seen before that are historically noteworthy.

First, AJ Wlad is basically the only fight in HW history where an old, outgoing dominant HW is beaten by a new dominant HW in a very competitive, exciting, ATG fight. Tyson destroyed Holmes in a very uncompetitive fight. So did Holmes to Ali. Marciano to Louis. The only one really comparable at all is Bowe Holyfield. But Holyfield didn’t go away afterward, and, especially for the first loss, wasn’t declining at all. It was a battle of primes. The other one that comes to mind is Vitali v Lewis, but the old gun beat the new guy who took up the mantel thereafter. AJ Wlad is kinda historically unique in such a high level, evenly matched classic fight of old high level vs new high level.

Second, Fury Wilder is the only HW fight ever between two such high level performers that resulted in a (mostly fair) draw. Two dominant HW’s have never met in a clash like this and be so evenly matched as to result in a draw. Even if Fury is generally thought to have been more deserving of the win, a draw was the actual result, and it was certainly close enough that it wasn’t an outright robbery as opposed to Lewis Holyfield. (I scored the fight by a few rounds to Fury. But anyone trying to compare those two fights immediately lose credibility. A true robbery is fairly rare, but Lewis Holyfield was the worst robbery I’ve ever watched live. Lewis was never hurt by Holyfield and threw and landed twice as many punches as Holyfield. Fury Wilder can’t be compared to that, where Fury had fairly modest punch stat leads and where he was kd'd twice.) And Lewis Holyfield is literally the only high level fight between two high level champs or two such high level HW's that has ever resulted in a draw before. So, Fury Wilder is also historically unique in this manner.

I get the grass is always greener mentality and the need to trash results you don't like or fighters you don't like, but let's take a second to respect some of the great things that are coming out of this era!