Did Joshua win a title too early?

[Fenster]

Just to make it perfectly clear - I'm arguing Wilder/Joshua (2017) would have beat Berbick or Bonecrusher (1986), therefore could have been "world" champion in Tyson's era, i'm not arguing either beat prime Tyson. Likewise they could have beaten Morrison, Bentt, Seldon, Akinwande, etc in the 90s, not that I think either are better than Lewis or Bowe.

It's all due to circumstance.

[Master]

Ray Mercer, that fought Morrison, would beat Wilder and I think Witherspoon that fought Holmes/Bruno would have overcome AJ at this point.

[powerpuncher]

Just to make it perfectly clear - I'm arguing Wilder/Joshua (2017) would have beat Berbick or Bonecrusher (1986), therefore could have been "world" champion in Tyson's era, i'm not arguing either beat prime Tyson. Likewise they could have beaten Morrison, Bentt, Seldon, Akinwande, etc in the 90s, not that I think either are better than Lewis or Bowe.

It's all due to circumstance.

Don’t disagree with that. I’m just arguing that Wilder and AJ wouldn’t by any stretch of the imagination be the two top guys in the 90’s. I’m not surprised about anybody being a belt holder. There have been absolutely awful belt holders in every division. Like I said in my previous post, they would both be relevant but not top guys. Being a belt holder doesn’t make you a top guy in the division.

[TitoFan]

Funny how this type of argument (almost) never happens in any other division other than HW. That's because HW is open-ended, and is the only division where an out-of-physical-shape, hard-punching behemoth talks himself into having a puncher's chance against other heavyweights. In every era you have your sprinkling of fat, big-bellied, sometimes over-the-hill wannabes, who have only their huge punch going for them. In HW is where you sometimes get fights where both fighters are afraid to touch each other's chins, for fear of the one-punch KO.

When people start to compare today's HW fighters with yesterday's, the size difference can't be forgotten. Back in Ali's day, 220 was a huge heavyweight. Now it's fairly light. Today's AJ's, Wilder's, Ortiz's, are huge as compared to Ali, Frazier, and others. Lennox and Wlad are better comparisons in size to our current champions. Heights of 6'-6", 6'-7" were unheard of back then. Now they're commonplace. A huge advantage for a HW.

What sets apart eras is the competitiveness of the top fighters. Ali had Frazier, Foreman, Norton, and others. Holmes came around a little later and probably lacked in the competition department. Plus he was a whiner and people didn't like him. Tyson had little competition at first, but had some memorable opponents in Ruddock, Holyfield, and unfortunately for him... Douglas.

Wlad had some good opponents... some bad. His style is what screwed up the division for over a decade. And now, we have competitiveness again..... and the willingness to engage. The great (and confounding) thing about the division is that it's difficult to pick winners with much accuracy sometimes, because any fight can be ended with one haymaker.

[mrbig1]

On another thread I said AJ needs one or two more fights under his belt. On the other hand would you risk that and lose out on a major payday. Wilder has twice as many fights. We point to the big win over WK who was 40 years old and loss his last fight to Tyson Fury. AJ is still a work in progress. I not saying Wilder is unbeatable believe me he is not. It takes a well schooled fighter to beat him.