Who has been the most overrated heavyweight of the 21st century so far?

Before reading the replies to OP, I voted Wilder. Many have given good reasond as to why.

My 2d pick would be AJ. Beating (near) 40 y/o Wlad & Pov yielded more hype than it should have. Oh, he stopped Whyte nearly 10 years ago. How well has that held up? He's very marketable and gave the Brits a HW champ... but two stoppage losses to Ruiz & DD plus two more to a former CW points toward being overrated.

 

AJ and Wilder. Good fighters but more on the level of the 80s Alphabet champs than atg heavyweight's.

 

Basically, if you think Wilder sucks ... yet he still managed to win the National Golden Gloves, US Amateur Championships, the Olympic Trials, a Bronze Medal in the Olympics, the WBC Heavyweight Title, make 10 successful heavyweight title defenses (including one over an unbeaten Ring champ), knock out everyone he faced for a dozen years, hold the title for five years, and end up being one of the longest reigning heavyweight champs in history and one of the most successful heavyweight champs in history ...

Then forget THIS century ... he is clearly one of the most UNDERRATED champions IN THE SPORT'S history.

Because he actually achieved those things, even though some don't think he was good enough to do any of that.

Overrated is EXPECTING him to be better and the fighter failing to live up to the expectations.

Nobody expected anything from him ... in the amateurs or the pros. Wilder wasn't expected to win anything. Hell, he was the underdog to beat Stiverne in 2015. He wasn't supposed to win anything.

In fact, Derek Chisora got more hype and more of a push early in his career than Wilder.

Chisora was fighting in Wembley on PPVs when Wilder was fighting in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

Wilder toiled in obscurity while Chisora was featured on major British cards, PPV undercards, got televised British title shots, WBO international title shots, a world title shot, headlined PPVs himself, and Chisora's career at the top was considered (at the time) to be over before Wilder EVEN GOT HIS FIRST BREAK.

Chisora just lost most of his chances. Wilder didn't.

Chisora is another guy who FAILED to live up to his early expectations, and now, 18 years into a career, is still trying to win his first of ANY Major title.

Apparently, you guys don't understand what overrated means? If you do, the vote makes zero sense.

If Wilder was OVERRATED, that means you EXPECTED him to do better than 10 successful title defenses and a five-year reign, and he failed to live up to those expectations.

It means you EXPECTED something like 20 successful defenses from Wilder and 10 years on top, and he came up short.

Is Wilder really the guy on that list everyone thought would win MORE than he actually did?

 

It's AJ due to the incredible media hype and his resume after the Wlad win, which is very mediocre. Nobody has been hyped like him in recent history, maybe never and he really did little after the Wlad win and might retire without another big win.

Juggernaut Joyce is worth a mention, not hyped as much but still hyped, he's a big name, and yet his results are woeful for a middle-age brand name. Around here people were even saying he beats AJ/Fury/Wilder, walks through them etc. He was apparently a wrecking ball who was a threat to everyone. Then oops, Old Zhang smashed him to pieces. Even old Chisora just beat him, and that pos loses to almost everyone any good.

Dubious quit so it wasn't even a conclusive win. The Parker win was okay but maybe Parker actually wasn't 100% in hindsight considering how bad Joyce is. Because Joyce is absolutely terrible for such a big name in boxing.

As for Wilder, yes over hyped etc., but nowhere near as much as AJ. And the whole time people thought he was flawed and got by on power. It wasn't like he was made out to be the new and improved Wlad like AJ was.

 

AJ .people actually think he would beat genuine HW champs. He looks the part with muscles but in reality would be destroyed by most world class fighters from the last 40 years.

 

I don't think Wilder sucks, I think he was a flawed fighter who built a decent career off of his right hand. I took the question as not meaning who I personally overrated, but as who was generally overrated by the pundits, fans, the public in general. And if you were around at that time the hype for Wilder was way higher than it ever was for Chisora.

People were saying that Wilder could beat any fighter in history, no one has ever said that about Chisora and its been pretty clear what Chisora was from early in his career, no one had that high of expectations for him, they just thought he was entertaining. Maybe it looks different depending where you live and what media you absorb, but you can still look up interviews, posts on this forum and online to see this.

 

Yes very strange considering one fighter won his titles on the road without any home comforts and the other fighter and his management never had any intentions of ever doing such a thing like that,Wilder and his management also had the same mind set .

 

Dillian Whyte. Sounds funny right now but he really was thought to be by many as one of the best HWs of the decade while in reality being a glorified gatekeeper.

 

You are literally missing the point of being overrated. Overrated = difference between actual achievements and expectations. And nobody EVER comes close to being as overrated as Arslanbek Makhmudov. Not even Michael Grant. AJ? Even had he been expected to become GOAT he would still be light years behind Makhmudov in being overrated. Because he actually got some good wins (Wlad, Parker, Povetkin, Whyte, Takam, Pulev, Ruiz Jr). Wlad was 41, Povetkin and Pulev were close to their 40s but they were still good.

Makhmudov was expected to come through HW division like a knife through hot butter, people here literally said he would demolish Tyson Fury and were asking is there anyone to last tge full distance against him in the whole division. And in reality he finished with non-existant resume and being completely dominated and stopped by a borderline top 40 guy. He struggled badly against ancient Takam (AJ beat prime version easily, Joyce stopped better version of Takam as well), and his second best win just got knocked out cold in 30 seconds today by Stephen Shaw.

Makhmudov was expected to be next HW king and finished being a bum, literally. How can anybody be considered more overrated than him? Tell me a fighter who had the bigger difference between actual achievements and expectations? Certainly not AJ or Joe Joyce, not even Michael Grant as I said earlier, because he had some decent wins. Makhmudov has ZERO

 

Exactly. Thank you.

It's the difference between actual achievements and expectations.

What did you expect, and what actually happened?

Seems like some people are basically lumping "fantasy matchups" they didn't agree with into it ... and ignoring reality.

People had high expectations for a lot of boxers not on that original list who failed miserably.

I've yet to find even the biggest Deontay Wilder fan, for example, who predicted from the start of his career that he'd make 20 title defenses and reign for a whole decade ... and were severely disappointed when he only made it half as far.

People never thought he'd win anything.

 

1. Wilder
2. Haye

 

When we answer this question on facts and statistics and not emotions its probably usyk .

Yes , he is a very talented and skilled boxer , but being an undisputed hw champion with just 5 opponents on his legacy , avoiding mandatory title defences and pushing for a completely meaningless second undisputed fight really freaks it out .

I think we never in history saw such a thing in hw boxing .

 

During a time Alexander Dimitrenko & Arslanbek Makhmudov & Lucas Browne.


The heavyweight world champion of this century who was the most overrated was Oleg Maskaev definetely.

 

No a lot of peoples say in the past that Makhmudov was a future champion like Dimitrenko who was seen in the past like a Klitschko killer

 

Jared Anderson for me. A lot of hype including from myself. I think a lot thought he was the next big thing, even Fury bigged him up and unlike Joyce he doesnt have recognisable win. Atleast AJ and Wilder won the belt and defended it multiple times.