Understanding Deontay Wilder

Even in the fights where Wilder was seemingly getting outboxed or it was close (Szpilka, Washington, Ortiz 1, Fury 1, Ortiz 2) everyone knew that the U.S. judges would favour his work: only Ortiz in the rematch was ahead with at least two of the judges at the time of Wilder’s KO and even then, Ortiz still had over 15 minutes left to survive on his feet before he could win a decision. This meant that Wilder (who would have great confidence in landing a critical bomb at any time regardless) was even more able to stay patient and composed, conserve energy, be economical with his output (reducing the risk of a self-inflicted injury) maintain distance, minimise openings (which was very effective: Wilder got hit less by Arreola over 8 rounds and Fury 1 over 12 rounds than Vitali and Wlad did) get a read on the opponent, accumulate damage on them, wait for them to lose focus or become overconfident (Wilder giving up rounds actually helped him in this respect, along with discouraging the opponent from pursuing or sustaining a KO strategy) and snipe them, especially after they’d fatigued and slowed down, making the previous rounds irrelevant (not caring too much about winning individual rounds also gave Wilder more freedom in how he paced himself within rounds).

Wilder is less likely to lose focus himself because he’s always looking for the chance to set up a knockout punch and not wasting time, energy and taking risks by pointfighting excessively increases his chances of doing so. Wilder’s opponents knew that they had to work harder and take more risks to score points and simultaneously work hard to avoid Wilder’s fast, rangy and devastatingly powerful right hand. Some of Wilder’s opponents have fallen into the comforting but delusional trap of thinking that he’s unskilled, low volume and wins based on luck so they can carefully outbox him for 12 rounds. But even in the rare event that Wilder is outboxed and the fight goes the distance (Fury 1) he’s still hard to beat on points because of A-side and hometown bias (Wilder was given 3 non-KD rounds against Fury 1; even master boxer A-side Wlad was soundly outpointed by Fury) and the scoring effect of any knockdowns he gets: a Wilder KD can turn a round/point for his opponent into two points for him (as well as take something out of the opponent) and 36 minutes is a very long time to land a critical bomb or two. There is method in Wilder’s apparent idiocy and madness, no doubt devised by intelligent trainers. The only way for Wilder’s opponents to circumvent this was to be resolute in pursuing a knockout, which exposed them to more immediate danger (the threat of a terribly humiliating, career-damaging early KO) and they potentially had to deal with a bodyguard doctor (Ortiz 1) and referee (Fury 2) on top of that.

If Wilder is being pressured or hurt, his attributes (especially his speed, timing, range, power, toughness, determination, unconventionality and experience) make him extremely dangerous regardless. If Wilder is being comprehensively outboxed and it’s late in a fight he will take more risks to land bombs but it’s often advantageous for him to draw his opponent into the later rounds before he seriously unloads, as this greatly reduces the likelihood of him fatiguing or enduring injury well before the 12th round. His omnipresent KO threat (possibly seriously injurious/fatal) deters aggression, provides him with more time and space, enables him to take more risks, encourages his opponents to move excessively and puts immense mental pressure on them, which reduces fatigue, danger and wear for Wilder and compromises the stamina, ring IQ and defence of his opponents. Wilder’s record is highly deceptive: it was to his advantage for most of his championship fights to go long, which made him even easier to underestimate and thus all the more dangerous.

 

It would be a gross oversimplification. I've never fully agreed with that maxim because it suggests that Wilder can't be KO'd himself. Most boxing fans don't understand the mechanics behind Wilder's strategy and this essay helps to demystify it.

 

Wilder is dumb and delusional (an egomaniac) so it wouldn't be difficult but he isn't going to articulate an essay on his strategy to the public, which has been designed by his training team anyway.

 

"I do think he's the greatest one-dimensional heavyweight champion ever"

Someone like Mike Tyson fits that description much better, who at 5'10/71' only had one way to fight. Wilder's shown the ability to overcome opponents on the back foot, the front foot and in-between. He's far more versatile than he's usually given credit for.

"But on the list of greatest heavyweight champions ever"

"Greatness" is subjective. If we're talking about actual ability then Wilder would rank very highly.

"The HW division has been so weak..."

This is a complete myth. HW's today have every advantage possible over heavyweights from 50 years ago, no sport has objectively declined over this time period. The fighters are bigger, the nationalities far broader, the number of styles greater, there are more fights/fighters to study etc.

Some of the 90's (non-WBO) HW champs: Douglas, Moorer, McCall, 45/46 year old Foreman, Seldon, Bruno, Moorer

The 90's was regarded as a cr*p era at the time, as is usually the case. 90's heavyweights never fought anyone with the style, physical dimensions, speed or power of Wilder, who has shown the willingness to die in the ring. He'd be a major threat to any of them.