Who is Wilder's current historical counterpart?

Another thread made me wonder this. Most of the belt holders from the 80's had losses and weren't really thought to have much chance at longevity, or immediately lost the belt coming into the fight. I'd say he's already got a better resume than most of the non dominant, non lineal alphabet holders from the 80's and 00's.

The guys that come to mind who most approximate him are:
1. Ruslan Chagaev right before his Wlad fight(both undefeated, both seen as the lesser champ in a multiple belt situation, mixed opinions but plenty who regarded him highly, strung a few low regarded title defenses together)
2. Lennox Lewis right before he lost to McCall (similar story as Ruslan, except was higher regarded and had better defenses and better resume)
3. Dustin Nichols (not really, but I'm sure someone is going to post that, so I thought I'd beat them to it)

So, I highly doubt he will reach Lennox Lewis level, but I also think he'll probably go down as a better HW than Ruslan. If he beats Povetkin, he'll have a much better win than Ruslan ever did and virtually ensure a better legacy than Ruslan, and the overwhelming majority of all the non dominant alphabet belt holders.