Originally Posted by
Gandalf
Wilder does need to work on his stamina though. He wasn't the one running around the ring and only threw 400 punches. He should not have been gassed and did seem spent after both KD's. He hasn't had a lot of long tough fights. It showed a bit. Maybe this experience will be a good one for him.
You're thinking about this purely as a physical pursuit, it isn't. Physically Wilder was capable of nearly decapitating a 19 stone bloke in the 12th round. Look at Wilder's behaviour when he knocked Fury down and seemingly out in the 12th. It's over, I can do my goofy dance across the ring with a spring in my step and a smile on my face, I'm good. Oh no he's up, I'm therefor fucked again. Emotionally drained. Look at Joshua against Wlad or Whyte, or David Price Versus anyone that's twatted him out (Povetkin aside). Joshua is as fit as a fiddle, yet against Wlad and Whyte he hit crisis. Not because he hadn't put enough time in on the spin bike or in the sand pit, but because mentally he couldn't cope with the picture that was being painted around him. This guy is fighting back, what now? I thought I had this guy beat, he's getting up, what now? The Povetkin fight for both Joshua and Price was an interesting one. Price, who'd burned up many times before, all of a sudden managed to dump his baggage at the gate, and just come and fight, weirdly against the best opponent he's ever faced and by rights the one time he should have been royally shitting himself. Instead he makes a good fight of it before getting nailed. Joshua too seemed to be at one with himself in the Povetkin fight, at ease with the prospect of losing a few early rounds when Povetkin was lively, all the while implementing his game plan which worked a treat.
These problems people speak of cant be fixed with a bit more cardio, it has to come from upstairs. Wilder has had plenty of bruising fights, long physically demanding fights and he's come through. But there's no real thought process involved, we're fighting, it's physical, that's the game. Fury offered him a completely different aspect and whilst not as physically demanding as some of his other fights, the psychological toll was huge and it manifests itself in the physical form, it almost always does.
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