Similar in the sense that both fighters started boxing late and as a result had little technical skill, but made up for it with power, heart and tremendous work-rate.
"termendous work rate"?? What is this bs? He managed 20-40 punches a round on Saturday night, which is nothing. He was outworked by Ortiz in 6 of 9 completed rounds. Who is Ortiz workrate comparable to??
Wilder has A** power at elite HW boxing level, and an ability to land his best punch on every fighter he faces in the ring. Thats what makes Wilder exceptional. Can he continue to land it? Who knows. Its unlikely though. Work rate is not one of his attributes. He was getting out worked by a 50 year old Cuban in there, until the hail mary landed in the 10th.
I'd say Wilder's workrate is one of the things that gets his man into position, but that's not much of a praise I suppose. Anyway, lads, if "workrate" burns yer ass and ya just can't move on long enough to address OP's point holistically might I offer this alternative? Drop the phrase workrate from the comment and supplement posture, position, and patience. Three more qualities Marciano and Wilder share. I've been telling people they mixed Marciano theory with Foreman theory for years. Why does Wilder take up dangerous position in a dangerous posture then just stand there know he's got little to no defense? Same reason George did, because he's huge and at a distance is where he does most of his work. Marciano took dangerous position and dangerous posture but didn't wait on his man much for nothing, he's coming in one way or another and he's doing it while throwing bombs, but that's not a huge difference given what they all three share comes next. Whether it's Foreman/Wilder style stand their and pose or Marciano style rush and hit the purpose is to get the opponent to commit to an attack for them to study. All three require ungodly patience and hardheadedness. Study the attack and when the time is right all that posturing becomes bait for the end punch. Was Szpilka not doing something he had already shown great success with? What happened? Same thing happened to Ortiz? Washington? these men started to make mistakes or did they get caught doing what they'd done to great success up to that point? Take Marciano add you some Foreman and you get yourself a Wilder. Fury, in is own weird opposite kind of way, is in the same boat. Posture, position, and patience are his main ingredients. Let me ask, how many times did Paulie mention position? Why did Ortiz make a war of positioning? Because he was trying to take Wilder's talents away from him of course. Who on this forum spoke about position fighting in reference to Deontay Wilder more often than I did prior to that fight? Yeah sons, pay attention and learn. Or don't and tell me I dunno **** while you come off the back of voting for the losing side I don't really give a damn.
Didn't hurt that he only fought pensioners in their forties either. Marciano would get his clock cleaned by prime Joe Louis, Archie Moore, Joe Walcott, and Ezzard Charles. If he came along or stayed in the game a little later Patterson and Liston would have eaten him alive too. Unfortunately, Wilder doesn't have the excuse that there's nobody better around to fight. Joshua, Povetkin, and Parker are right there for him.
