Wilders pre title competition is underrated

Stiverne is his 2nd best opponent beaten because 1. he has power (KO'd Ring ranked 3x title challenger Arreola in 6, a lot of early KO's), 2. skill against a pressure fighter (schooled Arreola over 12) 3. durability and heart (never knocked down prior to fighting Wilder, went the full 12 with Wilder which only one other Wilder opponent did pre-2023, survived tough fights with Arreola) 4. he was a titlist with a high Ring ranking.

Scott for instance came to jump on the floor for his friend. Breazeale, final fight Harrison and Liahovich got blasted out in 1 too. Ortiz x2 and Stiverne 1 are Wilder's best wins, then Duhaupas (KO'd undefeated Helenius in 6 and outboxed Vitali challenger Charr, went 11 with Wilder without being knocked down, went 12 with major roiders Teper and Miller).

 

Nobody fighting each other these days? What the f.

 

You are with your arguments accusing usyk and not wilder in a brutal way. A man without a legacy , a lousy 5 opponents where three of them are not worth a note . Goverment funded , ducking every dangerous guy .

Wilder has 48 fights at heavy ams 10 title defences . What has usyk ? Usyk has jake paul instead parker or kabayel . Wow

 

"I'm saying Arreola shouldn't have been ranked that high"

He's a 3x title challenger and one of Vitali's better contenders. He was coming off 1st round KO's of Molina and Mitchell when he fought Stiverne. He would go on to take Wilder 8 rounds before his corner retirement, set a Compubox record with Kownacki and gave Ruiz a tough 12 rounder at 40+. Only Stiverne properly messed Arreola up and he had him on the canvas in both fights, so it's a significant feather in his cap. Stiverne KO'd a lot of bums, usually in round 1 but other contenders weren't necessarily doing that to them. Given the evidence he was a big puncher.

How did Stiverne "do much worse" in Arreola 2? He KO'd a more determined, aggressive Arreola in 6 rounds. I'd wager most heavyweight contenders in history would have failed over two fights with Arreola. Stiverne was often undisciplined, which explains his early career inconsistency and late career slide but he was a good amateur despite starting late (19 iirc), beating Price and Helenius.

Breazeale and Washington weren't as good as Stiverne. Neither would have got past Arreola twice and both did far worse against Wilder.

Duhaupas is the closest to Stiverne. Very tough fighter, more skill than Breazeale, a couple of decent wins. I could see him outboxing the Sam Peter Vitali fought.

Jennings was never ranked as a top 5 heavyweight iirc, he was 6th highest ranked by Ring before and after his loss to Wlad.

"I'm going to need more than that."

The evidence of your eyes. The punch barely touched Scuba, if at all and Scott's got form for quitting (Chisora) and jumping on the floor (Ortiz, even Thompson).

 

Joshua hadn't had many more amateur fights than that, but you make a fair point in what you say

 

Curiously
Who do you think he would have lost to on his way to his first title challenge if he didn't have the big punch

 

Depends on how you classify picking up an essentially vacated title from a bum, Then never beating anyone really good before or after picking up the title. He hit hard sure, how hard we will never know because he never stepped up and won.

 

Have you taken your meds? Probably time to take them again.

 

What is this absolute nonsense?

Usyk has fought 5 guys at heavy... 3 would easily top Wilder's resume, a 4th debatably would (and would be easily second).

Usyk made a beeline for the two best fighters in the division and beat them both... Wilder avoided basically all of the top ten for most of his championship run.

Usyks legacy is clear... He cleaned out the two guys who were EASILY the best in the division, twice each, and comfortably beat the guy who's likely to dominate the next era too.

Wilders legacy is ducking, Usyks is not.

Wilder has lots of fights and yet never beat a legit contender.

Usyk is clearly by the best of the era.

The contrast couldn't be more stark.

And Jake Paul?! What nonsense are you talking about?
I'd love to see him fight Parker, that'd be a great fight, but it's icing on the cake - Kabayel would be padding, he's not really proved he's a top top fighter yet (and might never do).

 

When your best win was literally a 40 plus year old heart patient, that doesn't speak highly about ones resumé.

Period

 

I would say it was decent until Joshua cracked it.

 

That is not correct
I don't think Molina, Duhaupaus, Arreola, Washington, Szpilka

I don't think the first 5 defences were mandatories

 

@HistoryZero26
I see the point you are making that if you removed some of the defences etc
Yes title defences against -
Duhaupaus, Ortiz, Ortiz, Fury, Breazeale, Washington
Doesn't look bad at all.

I think that point you made was missed somewhat, but I think people don't see some of that because Joshua had, had far less fights and was unifying and taking on far bigger fights much sooner as a champion like Wladimir, Parker, Povetkin much sooner etc

There was also contenders like Whyte who was arguably taking bigger fights without a title

 

Na, he carried on taking hard blows long after