Comments Thread For: Wilder Admits He Lost The Love, Passion, And Hunger For Boxing As He Announces Zhang Fight

[JakeTheBoxer]

Zhang`s list of last opponents:

Hrgovic
Joyce 2x
Parker
Wilder

Pretty impressive for 40 old guy nobody expected anything from.

If Wilder knocks him out ( I doubt), he can say goodbye and ride into the sunset proudly.

But I think this is not the end of the road.

[Mmann2e]

Great post and very true. Not sure where the vitriol toward Wilder comes from. Not a great style is the most often heard criticism; but if hitting the chin and knocking the opponent out still holds any meaning in this sport, his style was darn near perfect.

It comes from the fact he is finished and fans were lukewarm until he proved himself. All he proved to them was that he was Fury's *****. It why he couldn't sell and if not for the Sauds he be retired

[Smash]

wilder is 38, likes his psychoactive plants, has a dent in his head, its not looking good for him

[daggum]

I appreciate your analysis a lot. I think the metrics are misleading however as 3 fights were against Fury and he was pretty faded against Parker.

At least i respect you came to the conclusion based on objective data / analysis and not intrinsic bias.

maybe he could have ko'd some good fighters when he was prime but he didnt try which should be seen as a negative

[hennanra1000]

maybe he could have ko'd some good fighters when he was prime but he didnt try which should be seen as a negative

I agree, he should be accountable for ducking many big fights (as should most of the HW division fighters). Lot of that also falls on Finkel / PBC imho same as Joshua / Hearn (there more inactivity).

Whilst i know its hard to quantify objectively - the way he knocked out otherwise very resilient fighters who had never been knocked out in that fashion before (eyes rolled back and unconscious) makes me believe he was ‘potentially’ one if the hardest punchers and many HoF fighters at various points same same about him but without proof it’s conjecture .

[daggum]

I agree, he should be accountable for ducking many big fights (as should most of the HW division fighters). Lot of that also falls on Finkel / PBC imho same as Joshua / Hearn (there more inactivity).

Whilst i know its hard to quantify objectively - the way he knocked out otherwise very resilient fighters who had never been knocked out in that fashion before (eyes rolled back and unconscious) makes me believe he was ‘potentially’ one if the hardest punchers and many HoF fighters at various points same same about him but without proof it’s conjecture .

Besides ortiz who had an extremely weak resume at the time and in subsequent fights was nearly kod by ruiz and Charles Martin I don't know of any resilient fighters he kod? I definitely don't see any iron chinned opponents on his resume. The only top 10 guy he kod was ortiz which was solid but he was 40 and I think to be one of the hardest punches ever you have to ko lots of good fighters and guys near their primes but he doesn't have either. He has one good fighter who was pretty old. Don't think it matters how many bums he Kos and Knocks unconscious. Most of the guys he fought has been kod already or went on to be kod many times after fighting him and upping their level of competition. There was no hidden gem opponents that went on to make noise in the division. The only guys who went on to do good things were fury and Parker the only 2 prime guys he fought who were good.

[Willow The Wisp]

hes the definition of a hypejob and you just proved it by saying hes one of the hardest punchers in history. hes not. that was the hype. he has 2 kos in 7 fights against top 10 ranked fighters. thats nowhere close to being one of the hardest punchers in history.

ko ratio against opponents who were in the top 10(ring) at the time of the fight


ali-50% 18 out of 36
louis-75% 24 out of 32
liston-63% 7 out of 11
patterson-35% 7 out of 20
foreman-58% 7 out of 12
holmes-52% 12 out of 23
marciano-80% 8 out of 10
bowe-60% 3 out of 5
lewis-53% 8 out of 15
fury-60% 3 out of 5
vitali klit-75% 6 out of 8
wlad klit-53% 7 out of 13
joshua-50% 5 out of 10
tyson-53% 8 out of 15
holyfield-30% 6 out of 20
wilder-28% 2 out of 7


he ko'd a lot of tomato cans so what. they wanted you to think he was a devastating puncher but in reality the only top 10 guy he ever ko'd was a 40 year old ortiz.

Don't you feel any shame in trying to make a point using statistics that show Tyson Fury as a "harder puncher" than George Foreman and Mike Tyson?

[ELPacman]

It didn't need to be said out of his mouth to know that based on his last performance. This is a real odd match that I didn't expect really. I thought he was fully ready to commit to retirement. It sounds like he's so damn disappointed by how things went, he has to try to make the wrong things right immediately. Especially after how AJ's stock went souring since blowing away Ngannou. Considering the two have been tied to each other for years, Wilder is probably feeling something knowing he looked like **** in his last fight while AJ looked like the savior of boxing for that moment. I'm sure there is something getting under his skin there.

In all honestly, I've been picking Wilder forever to beat AJ (at least as of like 5-6 years ago). Just based on Wilder's last performance, I would easily pick AJ now to flatten Wilder. Wilder looked like a shell of himself and I don't expect much to change against Zhang, only Zhang isn't Parker, so Zhang can possibly be taken out unlike Parker.

[Willow The Wisp]

I think Zhang would be a harder man to beat than A.J. would be for Wilder.
Wilder looked terrible against Parker; and it could be the 2 year break or being shot. We just don't know yet.

[theface07]

Wilder is getting brutally knocked out AND I would add tht he really tries to sound eloquent and it fails each and every time because is forced and fake

He tries to sound intellectual but his lack of articulation and education reveals itself every time. Hopefully he tries to detonate some big shots against Zhang and at least makes it somewhat entertaining given how subdued his last performance was.