By Jeff Aronow: Deontay Wilder disagrees with George Foreman’s opinion that Mike Tyson is a bigger puncher than him. Wilder says his right hand power is the best of all time for the division. And for those who disagree with him like Foreman, he says they need to stop living in the past.
Foreman surprised boxing fans by saying that he sees Wilder as behind these heavyweights in the power department: Mike Tyson, Joe Louis and Joe Frazier. The latter two were fighters that barely weighed 200 lbs, and were more cruiserweights than heavyweights.
“I am the hardest puncher in BOXING history, period,” said Wilder to TMZ.com. “I don’t know what the deal is with the old generation, new generation. Like, the old is the past, bro — let it go!”
It’s common for retired fighters to rate guys from the past as being better somehow than fighters in the present time. Foreman is doing what many people have always done in looking back at the older fighters, and assuming that they would be better than guys in this era. It doesn’t work that way. The fighters are bigger, stronger and faster now.
Unfortunately, you can’t take smaller heavyweights and assume that they could punch with the top guys nowadays, because things have changed. These are the SUPER heavyweights in this era, and the ones in the past were barely making the heavyweight limit.
Mike Tyson didn’t possess one-punch power
Powerwise, Mike Tyson, Joe Louis and Joe Frazier never showed the kind of one-punch power that Wilder possesses. Those guys were fighters that scored their knockouts by landing an accumulation of blows. Although Tyson had a lot of early knockouts early in his career, he wasn’t able to continue to do that.
Louis and Frazier were both good puncher, but they weren’t in the class where Wilder is. There’s nothing wrong with that. They were still good punchers in their era, but they never showed the type of power that would transfer over to this era. If Frazier and Louis were in their prime now, they would likely be in the cruiserweight division, and not at heavyweight.
Wilder sure looked like the hardest puncher than ever breathed last weekend when he knocked out Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz (31-2, 26 KOs) in the 7th round in a come from behind win at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Wilder had thrown very few punches going into the 7th round, due to him waiting for the perfect moment to pounce.
When that moment came, Wilder unleashed a gigantic right hand that crashed into the 40-year-old Ortiz’s jaw, toppeling him over
Wilder: Fury won’t get up after I drop him
“If him getting up off his back is kryptonite, then Lord have mercy upon him the second time because he WON’T get up. I’m going to get him again,” said Wilder about Fury in their rematch.
Wilder will be facing Fury in a rematch on February 22. The last time the two fought a year ago, Wilder knocked Fury down in the 12th round. It was a brutal knockdown in which Fury looked to be unconscious for half the count. Surprisingly, the fight wasn’t stopped on the spot. Fury woke up and got back to his feet to beat the count, and made it to the final bell. However, Wilder says Fury won’t be able to do the same thing in the rematch when he drops him again in their rematch in February.