Why did Joshua duck Wilder his whole career

I bet he does. He got manipulated out of the best deal of his life by his camp. Or maybe he didn't want that fight in the first place?

 

The most generous interpretation is he was hoping by beating a name he'd improve his draw and get more bargaining power...

In truth, I'm not sure he'd have fought Joshua even if Fury had been ruined enough for Wilder to win (and lets be honest he lost all 3, two of which were against poor versions of Fury).

 

If I recall the AJ fight was always contingent on him fighting Whyte first?

 

The deal was for 3 fights: 2 fights with AJ after the mandatory Breazele fight he needed to have anyway.

 

You tell me your alt and I will tell you why.

 

And of course, that's another fight he outright refused.

Its amazing that Wilder ducked guys who would've topped his resume by miles (in several cases guys Joshua had already beaten), never beat a single legit contender... And yet we're supposed to believe it was Joshua doing the ducking.

One literally ducked every serious, fit challenger until he got embarrassed by an unfit has-been... Then proceeded to lose to every contender he fought.

The other fought most of the most dangerous in the division and at least appeared to be trying to make fights with the others.


The myth of Wilder lives on

 

Skeert?

Honestly I think back then it just looked like no hopers and those two. No one really ever frames it like this but I think Wilder was rushing from AJ's perspective because he was counting on them being one another's big fight. He wanted it later in their careers. Wilder felt like Joshua was wasting a hot opportunity and wanted to fight as soon as possible because they may not be hot later. I said hot because Wlad didn't lose his titles before he lost the heat in the division. Joshua or Wilder could have gotten boring at any moment and there goes your money.


I think the camps in reality just disagreed on timing. It's hard to believe either man is scared to lose, especially at this point.

 

AJ has no chin, one right hand from a prime Wilder devastates him. He'd defintely wet himself pre fight also like he did against Dubious & Ruiz. He hasn't got it in him. He's a bum.

 

He beat Ortiz to be fair - perennial Top 5 contender.

 

Not disagreeing that 60/40 to AJ for the first fight was reasonable as well as 50/50. Considering it was the fight that was meant to define the era of boxing at the time by crowning the first undisputed champion in two decades, and you are right neither fighter really deserved to be the undisputed champion unlike Usyk, maybe Fury if he kept fighting after the first Klitschko fight in 2015.

AJ would have really hit superstardom had he beaten Wilder then, by both tapping into the US market and of course all the belts. I strongly believe AJ really regrets not taking 50/50. It was the only fight that would have made AJ more PPVs than the Parker fight (1.8 million) and there was a LOT more hype for the Wilder fight than the Parker fight then. Look at Usyk for example, he didn't sell himself out - he took the hard route and gradually earned people's respect and kept building his reputation. Both fighters sold out, took the shortcut in fighting Ruiz and Fury and as a result lost the respect of the press and the people.

It was a very silly psychological ego battle of negotiations between the pair. Even Fury was the lineal champion and accepted 50/50 with Wilder. Shambles.

60/40 to AJ initially for the first fight alone was actually more reasonable than the $100 million guarantee 3 fight deal (Breazeale/AJ/AJ rematch) for Wilder because AJ may have made a lot more than 60/40 to AJ for both fights even if Wilder won the first fight.

 

Like war, the first victim in boxing negotiations is the truth.

We only know what we get told and history tells us that both sides usually lie.

 

Both ducked each other and that's the truth
Wilder took Fury first, because he believed beating Fury would make him the A side in negotiations, or at least 50/50. I don't care what BS fast Eddie spins, Wilder was never getting paid like Joshua

Fury was 10 stone overweight just a year or 2 prior and looked awful in his 2 previous fights
He thought it would be an easy win.

It's easy now to s..t on him, but at the time how many if you really thought Fury could win?

Fury may not go down as the greatest hw of his generation, but his comeback story is greater than anything any modern fighter has accomplished, including usyk

 

Both took risk averse paths. Both had extremely calculated management trying to preserve an aura. Both fighters couldn't make it to the mega fight that their management had brewed without losing.

That's it. That's the story. Joshua fanboys would have you believe Eddie Hearn's bull**** LOL

 

It's amazing* how these patterns keep getting ignored.

Wilder refuses to fight Povetkin because he considers him a drug cheat; proceeds to rematch both Stiverne and Ortiz, who had both failed PED tests. And how can we forget the whole Whyte saga. And of course, Wilder demands 50-50 for undisputed or no fight, but proceeds to give an out of shape and out of favour Fury 40%. Later, without a belt, he refuses the Ruiz Jr. WBC final eliminator because he wants 70% in his favour. And most recently Wilder signed up to fight Parker as the heavy favourite in a tune up before Joshua. Loses to Parker, and his team says oh actually he wanted a tune up before fighting Parker. lol

* "predictable"

It's always been the other party getting the blame when it comes to Wilder. Strange, he was getting ducked, yet everyone in the division was trying to get that WBC belt as a means to parlay it into a money fight with Joshua. Hence when he lost the belt to Fury, his team did everything they could to block undisputed from happening. We shouldn't forget, even accounting for COVID, team Wilder held up Fury and the WBC title for 18 months between fights 2 and 3.

Irrespective of what we saw unfold time and time again, there will always be those banging the Wilder drum, and laying the blame elsewhere

 

Truth is Shelly Finkel protected Wilder for most of his career. He knew how limited Wilder was. Still did pretty good, IMO.

One decent win and the AJ matchup becomes relevant again.

Chisora, Pulev, Anderson, Ruiz, White, Joyce, Charr, are names that Wilder should be seeking.