Tuesday 12 January 2016 11:38, UK
Deontay Wilder is playing a starring role in the renaissance of boxing's marquee weight class, says Glenn McCrory.
Deontay Wilder is exciting and I like him. He's got an air of danger about him. He can be hurt, put down and troubled and that makes him exciting. I'm not sure he's a heavyweight great but he's certainly a fantastic addition to the ranks and is now the most established champion in the division.
Wilder is a character and that's what you need for this new era in the sport. You've got Wilder, Tyson Fury and David Haye coming back into it and the heavyweight division is so alive at the moment. I'm a fan of Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko as people but I'm not a fan of the way they fight because I like fighters.
The Klitschkos, unfortunately, made the division dull. They made it about winning when boxing should be about fighting, about gunslingers going out on their shields.
I liked Tommy Hearns, Marvin Hagler, Julio Cesar Chavez and all those fighters who went out there just to fight. They're my type of fighters. You can put Fury in there too because against Klitschko, Fury just did what he had to do to win. He found a way to beat him and was never going to blast him out because Klitschko is too good a defensive fighter. You'll see a different Fury now, I think.
Fury beat the man who beat the man and that will give him an immense amount of confidence. If Fury fought Wilder right now, it'd be an absolute war. It'd be two undefeated fighters putting everything on the line. They obviously have other fights booked, but let's hope that one happens one day.
I wouldn't pick anyone above Fury at the moment because he finds a way to win. I make him the No 1 heavyweight in the world. Wilder needs to fight bigger names. He needs an Anthony Joshua because at the moment, he's fighting a barrel-load of nobodies. Fury has been stripped and that opens up another avenue, even though I don't agree with the decision to strip him.
Joshua is growing all the time, too, and the last fight was a great one for him. He won in style but it gave him things to think about. He's not quite the finished article and we don't expect him to be. He needs to work on some things and he will be the first person at the drawing board. He's not full of his own importance even though he's another rising force.
I'm looking forward to seeing what the New Zealander, Joseph Parker, can do as well. I've got some friends from Samoa and they are telling me a lot about him. They're saying big things and it'd be great to see him over in this part of the world. You think of all the great rugby players they've produced, so maybe they've got another physical talent here.
The whole division is opening up. I got into boxing because of heavyweights. Muhammad Ali. Joe Frazier. George Foreman. I bought the tapes of Joe Louis, Max Schmelling and all those great fighters from the great era. Jack Dempsey, Gene Tunney. Rocky Marciano. Legends of heavyweight boxing. Kids don't get into boxing for Floyd Mayweather Jr - they get into it for Ali.
People like Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis and Evander Holyfield were warriors, too. The Klitschkos, unfortunately, made the division dull. They made it about winning when boxing should be about fighting, about gunslingers going out on their shields. Look at Tommy Hearns v Marvin Hagler and Marco Antonio Barrera v Erik Morales.
Heavyweight boxing is a thing of dreams. The Klitschkos just put it to sleep in the wrong way and now it has awoken. We are going to have some tremendous times with some tremendous fights. It'll be here, there and everywhere.
