Is wilder a paper champion

[lfc19titles]

Protected by haymon and is only a champion because of him? His whole career is pretty much cab drivers and he refuses to test himself by fighting any decent heavies outside of USA

Is he also holding the belt hostage ? Refusing to fight the big boys he seems to be another broner who was gifted a title and is trying to Keep it as long as possible by fighting bums

Pretty much everyone can see he would lose to any half decent heavyweights but he is milking the fact America are desperate for their king pin in the division which he is not

[HanzGruber]

He beat the legit belt holder. So no dumb question. Broner hasn't even defended his 140 belt lol wtf

[Divine Hammer]

not only protected by haymon but also the WBC. wbc is the worst sanctioning body right now without a doubt. their corruption is completely blatant and shameful.

wilder should be stripped of the wbc belt for refusing to face povetkin. wilder a coward.

[TX_BOXNG]

Klit was the real champion

[Biolink]

Yes and No.

What do you consider a paper champ? He did beat the legit "beltholder" for the title(Who won the title from a vacancy, but whatever...).

He has fought absolutely crappy competition save the last 2 or 3 guys though. Not sure what the situation is with Povetkin either. I've heard he was his mandatory, but I don't keep up with heavyweight news.

[Eff Pandas]

80% (counting the WBA regular title) of the champions are paper its just a lil more confusing who's #1 in most divisions. HW isn't as confusing, Tyson is the champion.

[asgarth]

He won the title against Stiverne, who is frankly a little bit overhyped for beating only arreola, being behind the cards against ray austin and knocked down against rossy.

You can twist it however you want, but his first two defenses were laughable.
A rumored fight against glazkov is alright, he is a top10 contender, but he really has to fight povetkin first.

[Dr Rumack]

He's titleholder. Not a champion.

[lopetego]

Wilder's the definition of paper champ

his shot at the title was undeserved. He didn't beat a top 30 hw in his entire career, then out of a sudden he's ranked #3 for no reason. Gets an ¨eliminator¨ match against his buddy Malik Scott (who was coming off a LOSS), Scott takes a dive and voila! Wilder secures his title shot

Moreover, Stiverne wasn't even a top 10 hw when he won the vacant belt facing Arreola.

he was just a cherrypick gone wrong. WBC, with their eternal bias towards mexicans and mexican-americans, tried to make Arreola the champ after Vitali vacated his belt, they gifted both Arreola and Stiverne with a title shot neither deserved, so Stiverne's only good W is a shot to bits Arreola.

So Wilder beats a C level like Stiverne, gets the paper belt and is now defending it against bums. Truth is Wilder is still largely untested and unproven, and he'd most likely get trashed by either Fury or Povetkin

[soul_survivor]

Of course he is a paper champ, the WBC belt has meant nothing since the end of Vitali. But the Stiverne win was a good one.