Quite clearly that Wilder turned down multiple offers to fight AJ including every offer being over double Wildwr career high purse and the time. Whilst also avoiding Whyte like the plague and turning down offers to fight very poor opposition. Wilder even admitted in a interview to ducking AJ for to fight Fury for much less in their first fight.
AJ's level of competition has been far higher than Wilders with 20 odd less fights. Ortiz is an unknown quantity compared to the rest of the top 10. Stiverne would get battered by Parker and Whyte.
Are you claiming that VADA or the overarching drug testing bodies of the sport in general were seeking to protect Wilder? Would the motivation be that he was an American champion and they had not had one in a long time? I could buy that but it doesn't negate any of the other points that I have made. Wilder stepped up his competition in 2018, since then he's been fighting better and more dangerous opponents than AJ. 36 year old Povetkin was a legitimate threat, especially in Russia where he would be the A-side but AJ didn't fight anyone dangerous as that until 41 year old inactive Wlad in Britain the year later or arguably Usyk in Britain, while Wilder went on to fight Fury x3. And the first time AJ left his UK fiefdom, he got destroyed. The likes of Molina, Martin, Breazeale, Takam, Pulev, Parker, Ruiz and Whyte were puddings and by the time AJ fought Povetkin in Britain, Pov was 3 years older and significantly faded.
"with 20 odd less fights" You didn't read the essay otherwise you would have read me refute this, either improve your comprehension or get muted. AJ had 6 years of boxing before he turned pro, Wilder 3. AJ turned pro at 24, Wilder at 23. So in between prior experience and age, it's understandable that Wilder was brought along more slowly. And it backfired on AJ when he got destroyed by a B/C level heavyweight of the type that Wilder has battered many times. Ortiz has a better win than Parker or Whyte because his 7th round TKO over 6th Ring ranked Jennings didn't require a gift from the officials. Parker and Whyte couldn't beat Chisora without gifts. Most of their best wins have been in some way controversial and everyone in the industry regarded Ortiz as being more dangerous. Abel Sanchez said in 2019 (post-Wilder 1) that 7-0 Olympian robbed gold medalist SHW Joyce "wasn't ready for Ortiz". Prime Stiverne battered 8th and 10th Ring ranked Arreola twice when he was in or around his prime, while the 40 year old 18 months inactive injury prone version of Arreola went life and death with Andy Ruiz, who most thought got robbed in NZ against Parker, who got shafted by the officials in Britain against Whyte.
If 32/33 year old top 10 ranked Arreola was a bum, what is the 40 year old, 18 months inactive, shot to pieces Arreola? This content is protected
Both Whyte and Parker would blast out Stirverne (especially the one that came in for his 2nd Wilder fight), and Ortiz wouldn't create much issues either. He's too old.
At least you did that. But there is zero convincing evidence that Wilder was scared of fighting AJ and Hearn's record of 70-30 splits, one-way rematch clauses and demanding A-side/home advantage is well documented and admitted to. It made sense to age the older and more experienced Wilder out while collecting all of the other belts from the weaker champs (AJ admitted that he didn't fear being outboxed but feared a big punch). And after Povetkin KO'd Price, Hearn said that he wanted 39 year old AJ mandatory Povetkin to fight Whyte instead of AJ, so it wouldn't be the first instance of Hearn attempting to use Whyte as AJ's bodyguard. Fury was right: AJ and Hearn lacked the courage to fight KO artist Wilder but he had the balls to be 6 months and two tune up fights into his comeback from morbid obesity, hard drug use, depression etc. to fight Wilder in his backyard. This completely threw a spanner in the works, so Matchroom responded by upping the muckraking campaign.
