How about his windmill impersonation of Harry Greb, hitting the usually fragile Audley Harrison countless times. Inexplicably neglecting to use his vaunted nuclear right!
Stiverne 1 Wilder had to overcome a hand injury in the biggest fight of his career. A man who relied almost entirely on his power had to fight to a UD with a broken hand in the most important fight on his career and he delivered.
That ending was hilarious. Most of those windmills were clearly missing the mark as Harrison cowered against the turnbuckle. Harrison obviously there to be a name on the resume, but both him and the ref clearly panicked when Wilder went off script and full ******. Never go full ******
Best performance was over Ortiz who was the first legit dangerous top 10 guy he had faced. His performance against Fury in the third fight was also defining, he showed incredible heart and determination. Ortiz 2 and Stiverne 1 were solid scalps as well. Think the first Fury fight was actually bad in retrospect from Wilder. I thought he clearly lost and Fury was by no means in any shape to be in the ring with him. Funniest fights are the Nichols war, Harrison windmill attack, and of course the Stiverne rematch. I think the version of Stiverne that showed up is the worst heavyweight I’ve ever seen fight for a title, and that includes dear old Audley.
Ortiz 1 for me. The fight where he finally stepped up, showed he wasn't just a glass cannon by getting up to win and proved he could win when not on top. His reputation to turn a fight on it's head with one punch came from that performance and helped turn him from being seen as a joke paper champion to a legit threat.
The draw vs Fury is his best result, ATG Wlad wasn't nearly as competitive. If Fury was to beat ATG Usyk and retire unbeaten then Wilder's draw would appreciate significantly in value. Fury 3 was one of the great heavyweight fights and Wilder showed incredible determination and ability to comeback even when hurt. It was especially impressive as Wilder (who had fired longtime trainer Mark Breland for not allowing him to go out on his shield) was coming back from a brutal and embarrassingly one-sided beating in the 2nd fight, had received near-unprecedented ridicule for this defeat over a 595 day period and believed that his career and legacy were on the line. As for his best wins, I'd say there are a clear top 2: Stiverne 1: world title debut, never gone past 4 rounds before, expected to be “exposed” by many, close to even odds, step up in level of opponent, 12 round near shut out UD with one KD (2nd round, Stiverne had never been knocked down in 26 pro fights) against a short and slow footed but heavy, big punching, iron chinned, determined, aggressive, experienced, WBC champion, Wilder became the first American heavyweight champion in 7.5 years: by far the longest world title drought in the history of American heavyweight boxing Ortiz 1: 7th consecutive defence, step up in level of opponent, controversially ahead 85-84 on the scorecards, given an extra 20 seconds of recovery time by the doctor, 10th round stoppage with three KD’s (Ortiz was only stopped by Wilder in his 38 fight pro career) against a heavy, determined, skilled, very experienced, Pan American Games HW gold medallist, heavily avoided explosive southpaw counter puncher, 30-0 contender and future 2x world title challenger, 214 lbs Wilder came back from being hit with a flurry of flush bombs in the 7th and didn’t get knocked down In terms of ultra-dominant wins, Wilder has a few spectacular ones. Liakhovich, Stiverne 2, Breazeale and Helenius best fit the bill. If I were to pick one, I'd pick the Breazeale win: better chin than Helenius and Wilder went in with the intent to make a statement, as well as to demoralise Joshua (which succeeded to great effect, as Joshua essentially admitted). Breazeale: 9th consecutive defence, brutal 1st round one-punch KO against a defensively challenged and slow but tall, rangy, heavy, heavy handed, determined, rough, Olympian and 2x world title challenger, Wilder got rid of Breazeale 6 rounds earlier than rival Joshua, increasing pressure on Joshua to perform against Ruiz Fury 1 Fury 3 Stiverne 1 Ortiz 1 Breazeale I wouldn't say that's a grim list. If we look at the most recent HoF heavyweight inductees, what does their top 5 look like?
Wilder was a fairly significant favourite, -350 if I recall correctly. It was the first Stiverne fight where he was close to even odds, half-expected to be "exposed". Ortiz wasn't given such a good chance due to his age and inactivity, and the fact that Wilder had built up a head of steam at that point with all those defences.
Well in the last 10 years (excluding James Toney and Roy Jones Jr. '22) there have only been four: Wladimir Klitschko '21 Vitali Klitschko '18 Evander Holyfield '17 Riddick Bowe '15 So, the bar is quite high. Vitali has the weakest resume, but I believe they were discussing the merits of Vitali and Wilder as HOFers on Classic today: Comparing Wilder and Vitali | Boxing News 24 Forum (boxingforum24.com)
I wouldn’t say it was Wilders best performance. I’m not even exaggerating when I say that Wilder landed 0 punches for the first 6 rounds (ignore compubox BS for example Wilder does not land 5 punches in round 2). He was getting absolutely schooled, Ortiz buzzed Wilder in round 6/7 and was getting cocky when he walked straight into a right hand. I guess it’s a signature performance in that he did absolutely nothing for 6 rounds when in the 7th he’s bailed out by his power
Isn't Moorer getting in? I'm not that well-acquainted with his career but his top 5 would contain Holyfield 1, the war with Cooper and...? If he's getting in then it's going to be very hard to keep Wilder out. I specified top 5 signature fights, by many metrics Wilder's stack up well compared to the Klitschkos'. Wlad's are Joshua, Haye, Peter 1, Byrd 1 and Pulev. Vitali's are Lewis, Sanders, Peter, Chisora/Adamek (depending on which 40+ win you prefer) and Solis/Hide (depending on which blow out you prefer). Bowe's an interesting one. He's also got one loss and four wins in his top 5 but in two of those fights he got the crap beaten out of him, won while looking like anything but a winner (even though he showed great heart) and retired in ignominy, before Lewis destroyed Golota and made the performances look even worse. Losing to a former cruiserweight (in those days 190 lbs) was also semi-unprecedented at the time, even though it was part of a classic trilogy and the cruiserweight in question was a great fighter.
It won Ring 2019 knockout of the year for what that's worth but I don't think it has the same value as the first fight, where Ortiz was 20 months younger, four fights/camps fresher, more athletic, durable and confident.