Tyson Fury's era to forget

zero chance.

 

This era was Joshua defending his belts against solid contenders and eventually one of the greatest of all time while Wilder and Fury were recycling each other over and over again and it was still considerably more entertaining than the boring Slavic robots era that was the Klitschko era especially Wladimir ''the white Okolie'' Klitschko beating the pie the bit of a lazy fighter that knocked out the plumber from Liverpool and of course who can forget his wrestling ''fight'' with Povetkin...AWFUL

 

The problem with this is the solid contenders AJ defended against were Wlad title defenses. Parkers the only top guy from this era AJ defended against.

 

Joshua deserves credit he went out and tried to build a strong legacy. His win resume is good.

Wlad Well Past prime
Povetkin Well past prime
Pulev Well past prime
Parker Prime
Whyte Prime
Ruiz Prime

that’s pretty good run and he was willing to take on Usyk which was high risk low reward.
Joshua clearly is mostly finished now after the dismal performance against Dubois but for a guy with only 28 total wins he packed a lot of quality in there. He’s borderline HOF, I think he gets in with Fury and Usyk and he should probably go down as a top 30 all time HW.

 

It could have been his era, even if short, if he fought and defeated AJ. It was shared by Joshua, Wilder, and Fury, before Usyk carved his own. They could have been the Fab 4 of the HW division.

 

How can you use the phrase "almost certainly" in this context? Joshua was destroyed by Andy Ruiz ffs. He was destroyed even more brutally by Dubois, badly concussed by a right hand in round 1. Joshua's KO ratio above journeyman level wasn't that high and he usually took 7+ rounds to stop a decent opponent. Even at the peak of Joshua's hype AJ-Wilder was regarded as a 66-33 by oddsmakers. In retrospect a 2018/2019 Wilder would have been favoured, especially in America.

 

Fury was frequently ducked because he was better than all of the fighters on that list. Pulev, Joyce and even Povetkin are relative nobodies, none of which would have much chance. Haye was a more dangerous fight for Fury than those three and he ducked it. As if you'd have given Fury any credit for beating Price, who was far below the level of Chisora, Whyte, Cunningham, Wallin etc. Even Hammer stopped him.

Aside from Wilder x3, a future HoF and biggest puncher in the sport, Fury fought two ATG's on three occasions, beating Wlad with relative ease in Wlad's backyard. His only losses were to arguably the GOAT HW.

 

Because Wilder can't box for ****

 

If an era is defined by its most memorable fights, it's an era to remember and judging by the present landscape (with Parker, Kabayel, Dubois and Hrgovic as the top contenders, beyond Fury and Joshua if they're still in the mix), it will only be remembered more favourably as time goes on.

In between Fury dethroning Wlad and losing a 2nd time to Usyk, we had:


Joshua-Wlad (fight of the year, Joshua attains superstar status)

Fury-Wilder 1 (Ali-esque comeback if not more impressive, 12th round resurrection)

Ruiz-Joshua 1 (biggest upset since Tyson-Douglas, arguably bigger, certainly far more absurd)

Fury-Wilder 2 (incredibly dominant performance, no one saw it coming, Fury dethrones his 2nd 10+ defence champ)

Usyk-Joshua 1 (Usyk stamps his mark on the heavyweight division with a masterclass)

Fury-Wilder 3 (recognised as an instant classic, fight of the year, one of the greatest HW trilogies)

Usyk-Joshua 2 (Usyk cements his dominance, sets up Fury for undisputed)

Usyk-Fury 1 (Usyk dethrones undefeated lineal-WBC champ Fury, becomes first undisputed HW champion in 20+ years)


Six of the ten biggest, most iconic fights of that period involved Fury. More than Usyk (four), Joshua (four) or Wilder (three).

 

Fury was the best fighter at HW by a massive margin in till Usyk beat him and he was the man to save the HW Division from years of BORING Klitscko rule.

If Haye didn't bottle it Fury would have established himself even earlier

He brought the division back to life. God ordained. As written.

 

No, we can't box for sh*t. Hence we don't have Olympic medals or 10 WBC defences. Wilder's skill level was never what marked him out; it was his lethal right hand, athleticism, range, killer instinct, determination etc. that Joshua and Hearn feared.

 

Wilder wasn't a standout by the standards of his own era. Ruiz, Parker, Zhang, Kabayel, Dubois all have a comparable case for the HOF even putting aside Fury and Usyk.

Povetkin isn't far off Fury resume wise and is more accomplished than Haye at heavyweight