Deontay Wilder vs. Andrzej Wawrzyk

[Lackeos]

Wilder must not be searching in the top 40 for opponents. He's really shaping-up to have the consistently softest title defenses of any active titlist.

[Badhusker]

Wilder must not be searching in the top 40 for opponents. He's really shaping-up to have the consistently softest title defenses of any active titlist.

In order to get to that level, he needs more than one in a row. Wlad, for example fought Derrick Jefferson and Charles Shufford after winning the WBO title from Chris Byrd. Wlad of course has a resume of a lot of top guys too, but just saying it is a little early to chastise him for it with only one title defense so far. All of the champs take easy fights from time to time. The ones that are more active take more than their share.

I think his team wants him to get back to form with another lesser known opponent before fighting Povetkin, since his last fight was not a great performance.

[funso banjo baby]

Wilder and Stiverne were steered into extremely lucky title positions.

neither was remotely justified.

Povetkin holds the ridiculous silver title but is in a completely different league to those two.

[Badhusker]

Wilder and Stiverne were steered into extremely lucky title positions.

neither was remotely justified.

Povetkin holds the ridiculous silver title but is in a completely different league to those two.

Now fights for a vacant title have to be justified? Fights for the title when you are the mandatory challenger needs to be justified? No one is saying Stiverne or wilder are the best, but blaming them isn't right either. They don't make the rankings.

We will see where Wilder is at when he fights Povetkin, just like everyone said before he fought Stiverne. More of a test, yes, but don't be shocked if Wilder wins.

[funso banjo baby]

deontay hasnt been in a fight with a world class fighter yet.

regardless of the rankings that the alphabets gave stiverne and arreola.

not saying the fighters are to blame.

its just the sorry state that heavyweights are in.

it dosnt help that the hype around these guys is circus-like

in the run up to the Wilder-stiverne fight i had to continually remind some pretty influential journalists and insiders that stiverne was NOT undefeated as they were constantly claiming..but that he had a ko loss and a draw against extremely mediocre club fighters.

[Datsue]

How is fighting the Pole any different than defending the heavyweight title against a Pulev, Wach or Pianetta? Not to mention a Leapai.

That's an easy one: he's not as good as any of them.

And while Wilder may be young, but if he plans to clean out the division he'd better start fighting decent competition. At this pace he'll be fighting his second top 20 opponent when he's in his 60's

The level of jingoistic, blinded cheerleading for the highest profile bottom-feeder in the sport is quite, quite hilarious. Comparing Pulev to Molina or Wawrzyk makes S-P look genuinely stupid (not that he needs much help).

[Evander]

I haven't watched Wilder's fight against Molina yet and if this is his next choice of opponent it will be some time before watch that.

[zorndeslammes]

Wilder right now seems to be on the Povetkin plan of fighting substandard opposition in optional defenses and looking bad doing it. Maybe in 5 years, he can lose every round to the legitimate world champion and subsequently rebuild his credibility beating up damaged goods on ESPN 8: The Ocho.

[Datsue]

Wilder right now seems to be on the Povetkin plan of fighting substandard opposition in optional defenses and looking bad doing it. Maybe in 5 years, he can lose every round to the legitimate world champion and subsequently rebuild his credibility beating up damaged goods on ESPN 8: The Ocho.

[world ranked]

deontay hasnt been in a fight with a world class fighter yet.

regardless of the rankings that the alphabets gave stiverne and arreola.

not saying the fighters are to blame.

its just the sorry state that heavyweights are in.

it dosnt help that the hype around these guys is circus-like

in the run up to the Wilder-stiverne fight i had to continually remind some pretty influential journalists and insiders that stiverne was NOT undefeated as they were constantly claiming..but that he had a ko loss and a draw against extremely mediocre club fighters.

I disagree with that other than Wlad. Every heavyweight resume can be disected. I think Stiverne was a world class fighter.

[SenorPipino]

deontay hasnt been in a fight with a world class fighter yet.

regardless of the rankings that the alphabets gave stiverne and arreola.

not saying the fighters are to blame.

its just the sorry state that heavyweights are in.

it dosnt help that the hype around these guys is circus-like

in the run up to the Wilder-stiverne fight i had to continually remind some pretty influential journalists and insiders that stiverne was NOT undefeated as they were constantly claiming..but that he had a ko loss and a draw against extremely mediocre club fighters.

I disagree with that other than Wlad. Every heavyweight resume can be disected. I think Stiverne was a world class fighter.

So do I. The frightening thing is that there are posters here who actually believe guys like Wach, Pianetta and Pulev are also world class fighters and somehow better than Wilder. Those 3 would have been life-and-death with Wepner.

I think I said once before that it's been so long since there's been a decent heavyweight around, many of you can't even recognize one.

[punchoutsb]

So do I. The frightening thing is that there are posters here who actually believe guys like Wach, Pianetta and Pulev are also world class fighters and somehow better than Wilder. Those 3 would have been life-and-death with Wepner.

I think I said once before that it's been so long since there's been a decent heavyweight around, many of you can't even recognize one.

Wach and Pulev are world class fighters. Pianetta is better than his Chagaev showing but is Euro level at best.

Nostalgia and hate got you by the balls man.

[jujigatame]

I think Wach is pretty damn far from world-class.

Pulev may have gotten embarrassed by Wlad but he's still a class above Wach or Pianeta. Hell, make that 2 classes.

[greg]

So do I. The frightening thing is that there are posters here who actually believe guys like Wach, Pianetta and Pulev are also world class fighters and somehow better than Wilder. Those 3 would have been life-and-death with Wepner.

I think I said once before that it's been so long since there's been a decent heavyweight around, many of you can't even recognize one.

Wach and Pulev are world class fighters. Pianetta is better than his Chagaev showing but is Euro level at best.

Nostalgia and hate got you by the balls man.

..considering that fact that the best HWs are coming from EUROPE, that's the best compliment I can think of ...

[Freedom2013]

I think Wach is pretty damn far from world-class.

Pulev may have gotten embarrassed by Wlad but he's still a class above Wach or Pianeta. Hell, make that 2 classes.

Wach has a world-class chin, and has decent skills and power. But he's really too slow to be rated as a world-class fighter.

Pianeta was heading to become a top ten heavyweight when he was diagnosed with cancer. After chemo and it's semi-permanent side-effects, he's not reached his potential.

Pulev is underrated, he looked world-class a few years ago (for example against Dimitrenko and Ustinov) but Sauerland has done a poor job for him (kept him inactive for long periods, which can ruin a boxer).

[punchoutsb]

So do I. The frightening thing is that there are posters here who actually believe guys like Wach, Pianetta and Pulev are also world class fighters and somehow better than Wilder. Those 3 would have been life-and-death with Wepner.

I think I said once before that it's been so long since there's been a decent heavyweight around, many of you can't even recognize one.

Wach and Pulev are world class fighters. Pianetta is better than his Chagaev showing but is Euro level at best.

Nostalgia and hate got you by the balls man.

..considering that fact that the best HWs are coming from EUROPE, that's the best compliment I can think of ...

Yes, that is indeed a fact. And the ones who cannot get past the ceiling in EUROPE are still below WORLD class

[lowlefthand]

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/article/2 ... or-Sept-26

[diddy]

The demise of Chris Arreola has me a tad concerned for Wilder moving forward. It is obvious that Stiverne beating Arreola didn't mean a thing. Wilder beating Stiverne got him Vitali's old belt by default. Wilder has a very high ceiling because he's a giant of a man with raw power and rare athletic ability but it's gonna be really interesting to see how he he fares going forward against the likes of Jennings, Fury etc.

[crusader]

Arreola has probably declined since the Stiverne fights but I've thought all along that Stiverne got too much credit for beating him.

And aside from Arreola, Stiverne has only one win over a somewhat notable opponent and that was a late come from behind stoppage over 40 year old Ray Austin, who has the honor of being on the losing side of Wlad's quickest stoppage win since 2003 and was handily beaten by Solis immediately prior to fighting Bermane. Throw in Stiverne's loss to a journeyman and his draw with another journeyman, and to me you have someone who while then a top ten fighter shouldn't have been considered so good that Wilder legitimized himself in victory as an elite world class fighter or the future of the HW division; given how softly he's been matched I suspect that his team have the same thoughts.

[dominik]

The heavyweight division is overloaded with crappy fighter.

How is fighting the Pole any different than defending the heavyweight title against a Pulev, Wach or Pianetta? Not to mention a Leapai.

Wilder is still young. Give him time and he'll clean out this dismal division.

are you kidding? pianeta might be true, maybe even wach (although he would probably wilders toughest Opponent) but pulev is easily two Levels above the pole, wawryk won't even last a round against pulev.

just because the HW is not really good in These days it does not mean it is the same whether you fight danny williams or kubrat pulev. there are still many solid fighters available and wilder has fought None of them except stiverne.

[world ranked]

deontay hasnt been in a fight with a world class fighter yet.

regardless of the rankings that the alphabets gave stiverne and arreola.

not saying the fighters are to blame.

its just the sorry state that heavyweights are in.

it dosnt help that the hype around these guys is circus-like

in the run up to the Wilder-stiverne fight i had to continually remind some pretty influential journalists and insiders that stiverne was NOT undefeated as they were constantly claiming..but that he had a ko loss and a draw against extremely mediocre club fighters.

I disagree with that other than Wlad. Every heavyweight resume can be disected. I think Stiverne was a world class fighter.

So do I. The frightening thing is that there are posters here who actually believe guys like Wach, Pianetta and Pulev are also world class fighters and somehow better than Wilder. Those 3 would have been life-and-death with Wepner.

I think I said once before that it's been so long since there's been a decent heavyweight around, many of you can't even recognize one.

There are decent heavyweights. Not great guys but better guys than Wawrzyk. I want the Povetkin fight.

[keithmoonhangover]

Wilder's just doing what most heavyweights have done. Win the title and get a couple of easy defences in before he has the gut check mandatory.

See Bowe, Foreman, Frazier and stacks of others.

[punchoutsb]

Wilder's just doing what most heavyweights have done. Win the title and get a couple of easy defences in before he has the gut check mandatory.

See Bowe, Foreman, Frazier and stacks of others.

For the whole picture you'd need to look at total resumes. It's not like Wilder just started coasting now...he's coasted his whole career so far. It sucks when you follow a boxer for 30+ fights and still don't know if he's even legitimately world level.

[keithmoonhangover]

Wilder's just doing what most heavyweights have done. Win the title and get a couple of easy defences in before he has the gut check mandatory.

See Bowe, Foreman, Frazier and stacks of others.

For the whole picture you'd need to look at total resumes. It's not like Wilder just started coasting now...he's coasted his whole career so far. It sucks when you follow a boxer for 30+ fights and still don't know if he's even legitimately world level.

So he fought bums? Loads of heavyweights did. He'll be fighting Povetkin or Wlad soon enough,

[jamesmcdonnell]

something suspicious to me about someone with so many fights though, who has fought virtually nobody of note.

I wonder if he's chinny as hell and they know it.