How? Wilder easily won every round, fought well on the inside, outmuscled Duhaupas and got the stoppage. Duhaupas is a big, rangy guy and was very durable with a high guard and his chin tucked. He was relentless and virtually closed one of Wilder's eyes but Wilder still won the fight very comfortably. If anything it showed Wilder's ability to deal with constant pressure and overcome adversity. Prior to their fight, Duhaupas also had a far better win than Ruiz: a win over Charr, who comfortably defeated Ruiz's best win old Kevin Johnson, who gave Ruiz a competitive fight.
Unlike Ortiz, Parker has never been stopped. And he's taken flush shots from plenty of heavy hitters. Parker would most likely outbox Ortiz to a comfortable UD.
Ortiz has severe blood pressure problems and was only medically cleared the day of the fight. With Stiverne's obesity problems, Ortiz's blood pressure problems, fury's obesity and drug problems, you can make a serious case that team Wilder was prosecuting a deliberate strategy to seek out the medically unfit.
Severe blood pressure. Yes, Luis Ortiz joins Cassius Clay, who was only medically approved to fight Sonny Liston a couple hours before their first fight because Clay's blood pressure was "through the roof" according to the doctor doing the prefight medicals. Stiverne didn't have obesity problems, he lost too much weight during the first fight and dehydrated himself. Sugar Ray Leonard said he lost 12 pounds during the first Duran fight and weighed 135 postfight. And it was a cold night in Montreal. It happens. And people act like Deontay Wilder fought the Tyson Fury who showed up at the Klitschko rematch press conference, took off his shirt and said look at what a fat man I am. Fury was arguably in the best shape of his life for the first Wilder fight ... his third fight of that year. Third fight in six months, actually. He was very sharp that night. Fury weighed 10 pounds heavier for his rematch with Chisora than he did for the first Wilder fight. Fury fought great that night. So did Wilder.
I'd take Ortiz then and now. Parker has never been a better boxer than Luis Ortiz. And Parker was dropped by Chisora and Whyte. He wouldn't get up against Wilder. Parker is only 29, but the shine is totally gone. If not for some kind judges, he could easily have six decision losses and be sitting at 25-6 right now. Whatever people thought Parker was or was going to be five or six years ago, that window has all but closed.
No, they both had high blood pressure. And both weren't medically cleared until the day of their title fights. Ali had high blood pressure his whole career. He was 22 when it nearly cause the cancellation of the first Liston fight. Frazier had it, too. Frazier was hospitalized for it after the first Ali fight. A dumb post would be hearing a professional athlete has high blood pressure and calling him a sick old man.
Vitali's resume was not great, and I can't quite call him a great fighter because of it, but Corrie Sanders, Sam Peter, Herbie Hyde, Shannon Briggs, Juan Carlos Gomez, Tomaz Adamek,and Orlin Norris were all fellow titlists at least. His less-than-great resume was light years beyond the sick old guys and Saturday night fighters that Deontay has gotten in the ring with.