Quote Originally Posted by Kirkland Laing View Post
Quote Originally Posted by IamInuit View Post
Quote Originally Posted by Kirkland Laing View Post
Wilder fought far too many easy fights before he got to world level. Mormally when they bring a prospect along they feed them journeymen but they'll gradually up the level of journeymen. One guy will be extremely durable, another guy will be a mover, a braler, counterpuncher and so on. Eventually normally a fight or so before world level they'll put the prospect in with a puncher. Wilder just fought garbage up until Stiverne so yes is still miles away from a finished product. He's getting away with it due to his size and power but he's still making tons of elementary mistakes, going straight back with his hands down and so on.

You've got to figure that there's at least the Ukrainian cabbage farmer and maybe one or two others who can expose him. He's getting big ratings for Haymon Boxing Club though without fighting anybody meaningful so they'll probably keep it that way for a while. If I was Haymon I'd really not want to be putting him in with Povetkin anytime soon.

That is true but for me it has more to do on what he's not doing now that he has arrived and the fact that the division is so weak makes it all the more difficult to understand. That is why I have concluded that for him its more about the marketing and selling the smoke and mirrors then it is about fighting but in fairness its not just him doing it. Look at the welter div. Its deep and nobody fights each other and they all think they pick their opponent. Another sad byproduct of Floyd.

Look at Tysons first 30 or Chavez's first 40 or Monzons first 50. So this practice is certainly not new.
Haymon has an American world heavyweight champion which is a massive advantage when he's trying to make casual and new boxing fans tune into his PBC enterprise. Haymon will be quite happy to keep the smoke and mirrors going for as long as possible if Wilder can keep getting knockouts of marginally credible guys.

As far as mass popularity with boxing goes there's the old saw that there's the heavyweights and then there's everything else. Wilder is such a big selling point for Haymon that he can continue picking up nice cheques for knocking over marginal contenders for the forseeable future.

Be interesting to see how they attempt to get out of facing Povetkin and if there is a purse bid I cant see Haymon winning the venue. Wilder may have to defend in Russia.