Heavyweight Boxing

I haven’t paid any attention to heavyweight boxing in over 15 years. I no longer found it interesting. It seemed like the best American athletes were all in the NFL and HW boxing was being dominated by big mofo Russians with battering ram jabs. Nothing exciting to watch other than occasional glimpses of Hayden Panettiere in the crowd.

Today while surfing Youtube, on a whim, I dove into the division and…

HOLYCRAP!!!

What a lot of exciting stuff. It’s like the early 70s have been reincarnated. We have Tyson Fury playing the role of White Mohammed Ali, Deontay “I can’t believe I haven’t killed a referee with one of my wild haymakers yet” Wilder playing the role of George Foreman and Eric "Taco Truck’ Ruiz as the new Smokin Joe Frazier.

Despite their parallels I think the three will prove to have a different dynamic than that of their 70’s counterparts. If Fury takes on Ruiz, while still in his prime and not drunk, he will make quick work of Ruiz. Ruiz, on the other hand, will likely do quite well against Wilder and we all know Frazier didn’t fair very well against Foreman.

We could arguably slip Anthony Joshua into this discussion as this day and age Ken Norton though I suspect both Wilder & Fury will end Joshua’s career if they ever meet.

I hope nothing screws this up because it will be really nice to a revival of the golden era in heavyweight boxing.

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I’m not so sure Wilder has a lot to offer against either Fury OR Joshua, especially if Joshua continues to come in like he did with his rematch with Ruiz. He was fast, agile and did some great boxing. Not his normal knockout performance but far better from a boxing perspective than his last few.

Personally, I love Tyson Fury. Again, not because it’s necessarily exciting from a knockout perspective but he boxes like a man 5-6 stone lighter than he is. Plus, the times he turned up to press conferences dressed as Batman was a winner for me. He injected something a little different into a division which was incredibly boring at the time.

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Jeez, holy thread resurrection! At least it’s not THAT old a thread :laughing:

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Solid bump since Wilder Fury II is right around the corner and it’s going to be epic.

Predictions???

I’m going with Wilder via knockout. I want Fury to win because I’m so impressed by how well he moves, his fighting skills and how he can keep going for 12 rounds like the energizer bunny.

The reason I’m taking Wilder is I see more room for improvement from his last fight. He can study film and figure out Fury’s tendencies and create game plans for connecting. Fury can show up for the fight in a little better shape and and he can plan to throw more punches to do more damage. We know Fury can take a punch as good as anyone, better than anyone I’ve ever seen, but can he do it again? Can he do it twice in one fight?

I want Fury. I’m going with Wilder.

Well, I don’t think many people saw a Fury knockout on the cards, even if Tyson said he was going to do it. Totally dominating performance. I now think Wilder is letting himself down blaming his costume being too heavy. It was 18kg man, Jesus H, not 80kg.

Hopefully this will set up a Fury Joshua fight. Possibly the only time this will ever happen with 2 British Boxers holding all the heavyweight belts. Problem is, I think they’ll fight in the US to maximise on revenue which means it’ll be another 5am fight for us Brits.

If hearn has anything to do with it , itll probably be out in the sand again somewhere! he follows the money that bloke!

Lost all respect for Wilder after trying to put blame on the costume weight. Ive carried heavier for longer in the military and still got on with my job . . . he was way out classed on the night. I used to like him before that comment. Id even have defended him saying he maybe could have made his big right happen if it wasn’t for the blood coming from his ear and the way he was swaying on his stool telling me his equilibrium was slightly off and could hold his weight properly and power comes from the legs. . . but to blame it on a costume , GTF out of here . . .

I like what ross enemait posted - the only heavyweight in this era who can take fury off the top at the moment is fury

Yeah, I agree. There would have been no shame in just saying that 3rd round blast to the side of his head knocked out his equilibrium. Instead he blamed the costume and threw Mark Breland under the bus.