Vladimir Klitschko goes dowwwwwn

Deontay Wilder is American. He's undefeated (38-0), been champion for two years and had five title defenses, and prefers to fight almost exclusively in his home state. And yet, there's not many people who could even tell you who he is.

Here's a list of Boxrec.com's top 20 American fighters. I recognize three names on there, and one of them (Shannon Briggs) is a guy I'd have sworn was 68 years old. I remember seeing him fight on USA when I was in college.

BoxRec Ratings

 

The Shannon Briggs video with Klitschko in the restaurant is classic.

 

Shannon Briggs won the title 20 years ago by beating George Foreman.

That is a very sad sentence to type, for a variety of reasons.

 

The Briggs-Foreman fight opens the doors to some fun six degrees of separation connections. You can connect Briggs to damn near anybody in four steps.
Shannon Briggs fought George Foreman, who fought Muhammad Ali, who fought Archie Moore, who made his pro debut in 1935 and fought just about everybody of consequence in the 1950s (Marciano, Ezzard Charles and Floyd Patterson).

 

Briggs/Foreman was one of the worst decisions I've ever seen.

Vitali Klitschko damned near killed Briggs a few years ago.

 

More Shannon Briggs fun if you go further:

Briggs fought Foreman, who fought Ali, who fought Moore, whose last fight was March 15, 1963, a knockout victory in three rounds over Iron Mike DiBiase, which was his only boxing fight, but he was also a pro wrestler and the adoptive father of Ted DiBiase, the Million Dollar Man.

 

If you follow that chain a little farther and pick out a couple of the guys Archie Moore fought early in his career, you can go as far back as 1920 within two steps.

 

Quick look at Youtube video of the fight shows some serious power by Joshua; 25 yrs ago this would have generated some serious buzz. He showed more pure power than I ever saw from Lennox Lewis or Holyfield.

 

When people talk about the health of boxing they often leave out the phrase, "in America".

Wlad drew huge crowds and ratings for years. He just didn't draw (much) in the US. Boxing is a global sport and reports of its demise have been greatly exaggerated.

Heavyweight boxing would be well served by an American star. It doesn't need one though. Hell, Joshua and Wlad just fought a classic fight in front of a crowd of 90,000 people.

 

I believe Batman already pointed out the flaw in this premise. Heavyweight boxing already has the guy that should be its American star, Deontay Wilder. An unbeaten Heavyweight Champion (WBC) with a likeable personality--sure seems like that should be the guy.

Yet he remains entirely unknown to the vast majority of Americans. Quite a contrast to the days when the heavyweight champ was once deemed king of our sporting universe.

 

You don't have to be a magician to see who's great at magic and who isn't.

Wilder punches hard (and would always have a puncher's chance) but he is a deeply flawed fighter with massive (and gaping) technical holes. His real problem, and it has been shown in both his performances and the way that he has been handled, is that he (puncher's chance aside) is likely to lose to the first truly high level heavyweight he gets in with. The fact that (despite his record) he hasn't been in with one speaks volumes. He has been mollycoddled. There's no way to know anything about boxing and not see that writ large.

How do you truly sell a guy as a superstar (and the next great American heavyweight) when you pick up a version of the world title and then spend the next two years going nowhere near the division's high level operators (though I will grant that the Povetkin fight falling apart was beyond his control)? The thing is Wilder' flaws aren't subtle either. They are evident to even casual observers. Frank Lotierzo wrote a good article about them after Wilder's last fight.

Deontay Wilder's Vulnerabilities Were on Display vs. Gerald Washington

 

"Prefers to fight almost exclusively in his home state ..." Technical flaws aside, that's a pretty big part of not becoming a star. Headline a card on PPV at Mandalay Bay and people will know you. Defend your title in Tuscaloosa, and there's a pretty good chance you aren't going to become a national sensation.