Was Fury a cherry pick gone wrong for Deontay Wilder?

Again you underestimate Wilder and what he set out to achieve.

Up until he cherry picked Fury, his goal was always a 50/50 unification with AJ, a fight he believed he would win.

Fury was never anything but a past his best stepping stone. He was only ever about increasing the leverage for Wilder in his negotiations with AJ. Fury was an investment. An investment that backfired.

Once that fight was signed, and Fury battered Wilder from pillar to post, any thoughts of Wilder being the next dominant champion were over. From that point the only name that got added to his resume was Brezeale. That's it. Brezeale.

Like I said, from a financial viewpoint, brilliant for him. But some of us on this site aren't really invested in what a fighter earns, we follow the sport for the sporting merit and competition.

As for AJ, he filled the gap left by Fury, he was ranked at the top of the division by everyone. From the moment he won his belt till the moment he lost it, he was the best HW on the planet. But he won't beat Usyk in the rematch. He's going to get knocked out. Usyk is the man who will replace Fury this time, and maybe in 2 more year Fury will return and reclaim his place at the top, who knows?

 

Right. And Wilder and Fury officially fought for the Ring/Lineal title twice. They made history together. And will be linked together forever in boxing lore.

Wilder and Fury signing to fight each other turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to both of them in their careers.

On the other hand, Joshua has never fought for the lineal title. Joshua very well may lose again to Usyk and fall to 24-3. But he made a lot of money, which seems to be what he was best at. So, good for him.

 

I'm sorry but Wilder isn't content just fighting for a lineal belt. He wanted to be the best in the world. He wanted to knock out Fury and then knock out AJ and claim all the marbles for himself.

That didn't happen. Fury turned back the clock and took Wilder to school.

Like Wilder, AJ has never won the lineal belt. But unlike Wilder he has sat at the top of the division. Like Wilder he'll never sit at the top again.

 

Everyone doesn't get to be the World Champion.

Wilder never got to be the World Champion. Neither did Joshua (he never even fought for it).

But Fury had to completely change his style in order to beat Wilder to win the Lineal World Title again, and Wilder still had the champion down four times in their series, and their fights made history.

It was an enormously fun and historic run for those two.

 

And its because of Fury that he didn't get to be the champion. It's because of Fury he stopped winning fights. It's because of Fury he started to get knocked out.

This is the same Fury he was a big favourite over. The same Fury who had a breakdown and retired. The same Fury who was seen as nothing but a bit of low risk Brit Exposure.

Hence why it was a cherry pick gone wrong.

Wilder was already a millionaire. He wanted to be the best in the world and those dreams were crushed by Fury.

Ironically, had he signed to fight AJ instead he has a very good chance of unifying the whole division and maintaining his KO record and getting his mega millions. AJ was about to get knocked out, it was a perfect storm for Wilder, but he missed the boat.

This is why it's a cherry pick gone wrong. The fight with Fury was never meant to end his career at the top. It was always meant to be a pit stop to greater things.

 

Fury getting up in that. 12th round is the best thing that could happen to wilder financially. It essentially drove the story which helped them both start to earn huge amounts.
Even after getting battered in the second fight people just forgot that and still just talked about the 12th round of the first fight.

 

No, it's because of Fury that he even fought for the Lineal title.

Anthony Joshua never held it. He never even fought for it.

Hell, Joshua was rated FOURTH, behind Andy Ruiz, when the Ring title was on the line in the Fury-Wilder rematch.

Joshua didn't get to become Ring champion because he couldn't even get past Andy Ruiz and Usyk. Joshua stopped winning fights because of Andy Ruiz. Joshua started getting knocked out because of Andy Ruiz.

(Do we need to do this all day? Losing to the World Champ for the WORLD title is better than losing to Andy Ruiz and never fighting for the World title at all.)

 

AJ is going to lose, he's old news, this isn't about AJ. Make a separate thread to discuss him.

This is about Wilder, cherry picking Fury, and it backfiring.

Pretend to be his bank manager all you want, we're boxing fans and we can see see how it backfired. You don't follow the sport, so you can't.

 

It didn't backfire. Wilder kept his title. He made three more title defenses. Their first meeting was the BUZZ of the sports world. Wilder's title fight purses went up sometimes tenfold. Fury's purses exploded. They were both offered huge deals. They made history together.

They ended up fighting three times. They became historic boxing figures together.

All because they signed to fight each other that first time in 2018. Probably the greatest decision either of them ever made in terms of how it turned out for both of them.

Most GREAT boxing decisions don't result in you keeping your title, rising from a relatively niche sport champion to a mainstream sports celebrity, as well as increasing your earning income nearly TENFOLD.

Signing to fight that first time definitely wasn't a decision - on either Fury or Wilder's part - that you could describe as having "gone wrong."




And you're right. This isn't about Joshua. But you are the one who kept bringing up Joshua and insisting it was about him. Joshua went his own way. And, in the prize ring, at least, he's made kind of a mess of things for himself.

 

You mentioned him first, not me.

But yes it backfired because me and the rest of the Wilder fan club were hoping he would go on to become world champion, he was supposed to sign to fight the guy holding all the belts. Instead he cherry picked Fury so he could leverage more money, and he got dominated, then twice knocked out in the rematches.

For us as fans this is not what we wanted. You as an accountant was happy with his bank balance. Us as fans were not. He never should have cherry picked the fight. His place as an ATG was there for the taking, which is what us fans wanted. But you callous finance types don't care about any of that.

 

?

You can't become World Champion if you don't knock off the World Champion.

Wilder fought the World Champion. He came close. But he didn't knock him off. That's the way it goes.

But you don't get to become World Champ if you don't fight him. The road to the World title went through Fury.


As for Joshua, Wilder was the WBC champion before Joshua won anything and Wilder was still the WBC champion when Joshua lost all his belts to Ruiz. Joshua was never the world champion. And nobody who has beaten Joshua became the World Champion, either.

The road to the title never went through Joshua because Joshua never had it to lose it.


This is like beating a dead horse. I have to go paint some chairs.

Fury vs. Wilder was great for boxing and great for both fighters. And both got out in tact.

I'm glad we got to see it.

 

I know it takes some people longer than others but jesus christ this is like pulling teeth.

If instead of signing to fight Fury, Wilder fights AJ, they are fighting for every single belt in the whole world, and given how AJ was about to lose to Ruiz, Wilder has a great chance of scoring the upset and knocking AJ out himself.

This way he makes mega money as the unified undisputed champion.

The title only went through Fury because of the cherry pick gone wrong.

Like I said, there was a perfect storm brewing for Wilder and he missed the boat.

 

It was a terrible decision , if he had forced the cowardly Joshua into the squared circle instead then Wilders career would have been a completely different story.

 

Coulda, woulda, shoulda ... None of it matters.

Once the World champion returns to the ring and wants to fight you, you kinda have to beat him.

Wilder and Joshua could've fought for all the belts in the fall of 2018 but Joshua had to fight his mandatory Povetkin. Wilder and Joshua could've fought for all the belts in early 2019 ... but, wait, Joshua had to "increase his profile in the US" first by signing in February to defend against Big Baby Miller that summer ... and then Wilder had to fight his mandatory Breazeale ... and then Joshua lost to late-sub Ruiz a couple weeks later ... and blah, blah, blah ...

None of it matters.

Truth is, once Fury came back in the summer of 2018, the window had, for all intents and purposes, closed. Nobody was ever going to be recognized as the new World Champ until they beat Fury.

And nobody has been recognized as such because no one has managed it yet.

All I hear from your griping is Wilder should've ducked Fury in 2018, Wilder should've gone along and waited for Joshua to fight Big Baby Miller to increase Joshua's profile in the States, Wilder should've watched as Joshua lost to late-sub Ruiz, Wilder should've waited until Joshua regained his straps from Ruiz ... then what? Wilder should've sat out during Covid because they had to wait until they could fill a stadium?

How the hell would people view him if he'd done that? You don't sound like any Wilder fan to me.

Wilder decided to fight Fury. It was a GREAT decision. It turned out GREAT for both of them. It elevated both of them. Everyone knows who the World Champion is now.

They both became historic boxing figures as a result and made their fortunes.

And neither of them had to sit around for years waiting for Joshua to quit fumbling the ball and get his act together.

 

Let’s get one thing straight, Fury picked Wilder, not the other way around. He was supposed to have a few more warm up fights until he saw how team AJ shat their absolute britches from Wilder so ferociously that he saw an opportunity and went for it.

He backed himself. Rolled the dice and went in with the hardest punching heavyweight in history, lived to tell the tale.