There’s Fury fans who think Fury is directly responsible for the excitement in the heavyweight division.
Fury, AJ, and even Wilder are responsible for the resurgence in popularity of the heavyweight division after Klitschkos boring yet dominant reign Fury talks the most so I can see why many would think he's most responsible
I agree all of them have played a part but I think AJ took over and carried the division on his back for at least a couple years. When Fury and Wilder fought that’s when they two started gaining more attraction and AJ wasn’t single handedly carrying the division on his back anymore. Before then the only time fans spoke about the heavyweight division was when AJ was fighting. In the UK that was at least very true.
This right here is my biggest pet peeve in all of boxing. Pointing to a fight where a fighter didn't perform at their best and using it as a reason for why a different fighter will beat them. If anyone here thinks that AJ is gonna fight Fury like he fought Ruiz, or that Fury is gonna fight AJ like he fought Wallin, you need to stop discussing boxing as if you know a single ****ing thing about it.
Agreed. But if Fury hadn't retired I don't think AJ would have been carrying the division solo on his back. Wilder knocking out cans this late in his career didn't help the division as much as Fury and AJ.
Yep this. Joshua became something the division hadn't seen since Tyson, we suddenly had a cash cow at heavyweight one that was crossing over and attracting casuals back to the heavyweight division. You remove that from the division I don't think Wilder or Fury would have stepped up like they did. Wilder definitely wouldn't of taken risky fights like Ortiz and Fury as the financial incentive wouldn't of been there to do so he'd have continued fighting C listers. Fury I'm sure would of come back without Joshua, as he needed the money after 2 years of legal battles surrounding his doping charges. But Wilder wouldn't of been taking a fight against him for a fraction of what they got and even if he did it would lack the significance it had with a prospective huge money fight for the winner vs a cash cow like Joshua. I can't see either of them raising the division out of the tedium it had sunk to prior to Joshua's emergence.