No other sport is as ?what have you done for me lately? as boxing and, really, it?s only fair. After all, it only takes one punch to end it all for any given fighter and in a sport where the best only fight twice a year at most, what took place even five or six years ago is pretty much ancient history.
So, with that in mind, is it safe to say that Deontay Wilder, after his face-rattling first round knockout of Dominic Breazeale last Saturday night at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, has officially passed Anthony Joshua as the no. 1 heavyweight in the world?
It?s not that beating Breazeale was all that monumental or even unexpected, but it does cap a pretty good recent run from the 33-year-old Tuscaloosa, Alabama native.
Assuming Joshua beats Andy Ruiz this June 1 (and he should), we?re talking Ruiz, Alexander Povetkin, Joseph Parker, and Carlos Takam in the Brit?s last four, dating back to October of 2017.
For Wilder, his last four bouts have delivered wins against Breazeale, Luis Ortiz, and Bermane Stiverne and a draw with Tyson Fury, dating back to November of 2017.
4-0 is better than 3-0-1, but degree of difficulty should be taken into account when it comes to Wilder?s stalemate against Fury, who is widely regarded as a top 3 heavyweight and a tough stylistic piece of work.
Then again, many felt Fury actually beat Wilder?
Hierarchy matters to more than just those fans and media who like to slap together top 10 rankings and pound-for-pound lists. In the three-way heavyweight picture we currently have, negotiations may come down to something as seemingly inconsequential as who?s number one on more rankings.
Go back to five fights ago and Joshua?s win over Wladimir Klitschko may trump anything on Wilder?s r?sum?. Five fights ago, Wilder was beating Gerald Washington in an uneven performance. Does that tip the scales to Joshua or is Joshua-Kiltschko/Wilder-Washington ancient history?
Go back further than five fights and both men are just about equal when it comes to level of opposition. Both were spoon-fed club fighters, journeyman, and fringe contenders en route to an ?easy? championship win that, to be honest, seemed in the cards from the first moment some boxing big shot first saw that there was a buck to be made from the heavy-handed big men.
Maybe there?s a case to be made, just this one time, for a tie at number one? Maybe a 1a and 1b? Maybe even a 1a, 1b, 1c if you take into account that still-lineal champ Tyson Fury beat Klitschko more decisively than Joshua did and, maybe, should?ve been given the nod over Wilder.
Having three heavyweights with legitimate claims to top dog status would not normally be a bad thing. In today?s boxing business environment, however, where Joshua is tied to DAZN, Fury is tied to ESPN, and Wilder has aligned himself with Showtime as a kinda, sorta free agent, having three number ones means having three fighters with legitimate reasons to not bend in negotiations when it comes to fighting the other two.
In a perfect world, all these guys would fight one another until there was a clear number one in the division. But boxing, as we know all too well, is far from a perfect world.
