Wilder's future in boxing

Not only that.
IMO after Fury's and Parker's performances the boxing world saw and understood how to fight Wilder and his nuclear right.
To begin with, I think that Wilder (if these were his next fights) would lose to AJ and Hrgović; not to make the list longer.

 

I think there's more to it than that...

His levels been shown - he's just not that good... Yes, some of us have been saying it for years, but his level of opposition has generally hidden it.

On top of that, yes, tactically it's been shown how you beat him - and normally that would be something you could train to try and fix, but Wilder's not much of a learner and lacks the fundamentals to easily adapt.

Maybe he's a fraction off his best - I think that's being overplayed, but it's true on some level (he's 38, of course)...
The more important point is just that expectations of what he can be have been unrealistically high - we've been sold the idea that he's an elite fighter when he never was, and far too many bought into it.

He had a good run, achieved far more than his skillset or level deserved (belt, reputation)... Time to milk the reputation he still has with casuals and get out with maximum cash and minimum damage, IMHO.

 

Whyte told you all years ago how to beat wilder
Sit on his chest push him back and put it on him
That all fury and parker did thrown in with some faints
Theres a reason wilder told dillian you ain't ever getting that fight
To much risk for to little money

 

I wouldn't categorise Wilder as a slugger, that would mean getting into exchanges which he never really does, he was more of a sniper in style, stay at a distance where he's safe until he has that kill shot then take them out. Which is why he was happy to lose round after round vs Ortiz, he isn't looking to get into any kind of slug fest at any time.

He should have probably retired after the 3rd Fury fight, but who wants to go out on a loss and with a huge pile of money still on the table at the time with a fight with Joshua still viable why on earth would he retire. Problem was he simply underrated Parker a fight he did try to make years before when both had titles and we saw what happened.

Is Wilder mentally finished. Impossible to know, he clearly isn't prime, but people are creating excuses again to excuse the performance. The Fury losses were down to his weight, Fury's gloves, gypsy curses, now it's Wilder's mentally done. The inactivity and his age will have no doubt effected his performance to some degree that's common sense but saying he's mentally done, there no real evidence of that, just people seeing the bad performance, looking at his actions before and rewriting the narrative to explain that performance.

We need to see Wilder in the ring again with someone who clearly doesn't have the style to beat him like Parker. Someone without the speed advantage, who doesn't have quick feet, who won't just be pushing him back all the time and who doesn't have good head movement. If he struggles to fire the right hand vs a cherry picked opponent then yeah he's likely done but until we see that all you're doing by questioning his mental state is making excuses for Wilder and discrediting Parker.

 

What you think and what we know are two completely different things
Wilder could have proved both to you
Guess what he didnt
Path of least resistance

 

All the unanswered question lay with wilder and his words and actions
Comman theme theses days in boxing

 

The thing is if you watch the Parker fight again, he did try impose himself at times. I think it was the 4th round where Parker tagged him hard for the first time and Wilder responded unleashing a hard right of his own, but Parker fired right back and got inside where Wilder is ineffective.

We saw that repeated in the later round when I think in round 10 Wilder clearly knowing he needing a KO, starting throwing more and instead of just backing up, planted his feet and threw his vaunted right, making a concerted effort to turn the fight around not really the behaviour of a fighter who's mentally done.

Parker simply met fire with fire, using his OH right as a counter and then getting in Wilder's chest where again Wilder has zero ability. Other opponents would shell up look to let Wilder throw and then come back but Fury gave us the game plan in the first fight, each time he went down he didn't just shell up and let Wilder tee off and finish him, he fired back and hurt Wilder in return and Wilder was forced to stem his attack and be defensive and Parker did the same thing whenever Wilder tried to be more offensive.

Wilder I do think tried to KO Parker late but he simply was never allowed to mount any sustained periods of meaningful offence. Wilder has always been the faster fighter. So when he decided to plant his feet he would beat his opponent to the punch, but Parker is the first fighters he has faced with quicker hands and beating Parker to the punch was a very rare occurrence during their fight, it was Parker who was beating him to the punch all night long and because of that it was Parker who was dictating the pace the fight was fought at and as Wilder is not much of a counter puncher his offensive output was diminished. Which is why he seemed more tentative, it wasn't a case of Wilder choosing to be less aggressive but a case of being forced to be less aggressive by his opponent.

 

Or conman sense