For excitement & ‘what’s gonna happen next’, has to Wilder v Fury. Even though, for me at least it was fairly ugly with all the grabbing & holding etc. AJ v Klitschko was great, the atmosphere etc. Probably better boxing too.
Clearly time has taught us wlad was past it the point of fight, at least in terms of punch resistance. AJ is a little overrated. It was a great fight but not in same class as the fury wilder slugfest because both fighters were in their prime and trying to ko each other from r1. wlad v aj was an old champ past it fighting a decent young one.
Fury v Wilder Yes I was sloppy at times but every round had action Wlad v Aj was more competitive, but some rounds were terrible Both great fights, but Fury v Wilder for me was more exciting throughout
You do realise you could do the same breakdown for Wilder, and it would be comparatively worse. 2.5 years without a win 20 months inactive Brutally beaten in the previous fight. Came in overweight and showed signs of gassing as early as round 2... Might retire Took Fury "life and death" By your own criteria for criticism, except for retirement, it looks like Joshua v Klitschko wins...
Klitschko was not champion as he had been dethroned and shown to be not good enough any more by none other than Fury, it was a fight of an up and comer vs an aged fighter on the slide, pumped up in the media to be something very different. Klitschko still half battered AJ and nearly knocked him out. Klitschko AJ is an embarrassment compared to Fury Wilder 3. I understand people not realising it at the time, but now after seeing AJ lose vs fat Ruiz and little Usyk, it is a bit more obvious. Klitschko AJ gave us a glimpse into how vulnerable AJ actually is.
aj vlad for me wilder swinging away head up right arms wide apart moving stiffly round the ring target practice for fury once fury realized putting him on the back foot he had nothing else in his arsenal nothing
Two really entertaining fights. But I'd go with Fury Vs Wilder because Wlad was 95 years old and washed up mentally after Fury dealt with him.
AJ / Wlad was better, Fury / Wilder was more exciting. The AJ fight had better skills on display and much more significance. The Fury fight meant less but was a slap up meal, like watching a couple of drunk bums absolutely beat the **** out of each other on pier 6.
AJ vs Wlad deffo for me - it was much more competetive, and had a higher quality of boxing throughout. Maybe because I didn't watch it live, I'm just not seeing the greatness of Fury v Wilder III, it was ugly, sloppy and aside from round 4 - where Fury got real sloppy - and round 1 - where Wilder showed a glimpse of discipline and actually boxing to a gameplan, it was a fairly one-side affair; even the possibility of Wilder's right hand looked unlikely after round 5 where he would catch Fury but it didn't have the same snap because he was gassed. Maybe I need to watch it again, but I wasn't that impressed with Fury v Wilder 3 - aside form the heart and will aspect, as a boxing match it wasn't all that I felt. Certainly all the talk of it being alongside the 'Thrilla in Manilla' and 'Rumble in the Jungle' is nonsense - there are a tone of HW battles through the 80s and 90's that were better IMO - evenb Usyk vs AJ was much higher quality throughout.
The atmosphere was better for AJ vs Wlad with 90k fans in there, but it took a few rounds to catch fire. Fury vs Wilder 3 was all action from the start but then did become a bit one sided, but there was genuine bad blood between them. Really tough one. Can’t pick. Both modern classics.
While you are not wrong, I'd take that Wlad to beat any version of Wilder we've ever seen and that AJ then too would beat that version of Wilder, I mean Wilder showed an even worse gas tank that AJ did vs Wlad. AJ was able to get a 2nd wind, Wilder in contrast gassed after rd 4 and just hung in there bravely and took a beating for the rest of the fight. Plus lets not pretend both Wilder and Fury were 100%. Neither had fought in 20 months, Fury was clearly not in the same shape as fight 2, Wilder stupidly roided up and came in too heavy and was clearly tired after his effort in rd 4. Fury was sloppy in there, walking into shots instead of jabbing his way in like in fight 2 which is why he was dropped in rd 4. Wilder also had a novice coach in his corner for this one too with Scott. Fury/Wilder 3 was very entertaining but mainly because Fury was so much worse in this fight.
If Wilder was a shot to pieces old 41year old who Fury dug up and flew out to the UK to fight for a vacant belt you might have some semblance of a point here.
