watching his past fights yeah he has the power, and of course youth is on his side but I feel like Wlad does everything better...better jab, better footwork, overall better skills to be honest
"Yeah he has the power" You said it, that's what has got him where he is thus far. If that's enough we will start finding out tomorrow.
I'm very impressed by AJ at what he does, against who he's been in with. But he's only shown very basic boxing ability so far. He's fought very few rounds. He's hasn't shown if he has durability. He's just shown a bit of offense and punching power/speed against second-rate and third-rate opposition.
Do you think AJ is even at the stage Tyson was at when he faced Jesse Ferguson or James Tillis ? I'd say so, at best.
Joshua from a technical standpoint is actually very skillful, he throws a lot of combination punches with power which for a guy that big is very rare. His movement and footwork is generally good if not remarkable. His defence is solid and he appears to listen to his corner. The problem is we have not seen him truly tested aside from moments of the White fight. And he has not been pushed into the late rounds to see how good his fuel tank is. Undoubtedly Wlad will be his biggest test to date. Allot of judgement should be reserved until after that fight as to how good/bad he is.
It,s not the same ofcourse , so kind of hard to compare. I do think AJ is in his prime right now, how long this wil last noone knows.
Definitely. But AJ is a work in progress. I'm starting to feel the Wlad has picked him at exactly the right time.
A lot of what he does well are really basic skills though. Yeah he punches correctly, but so does David Price for the most part, boxing is way, way more complex than just throwing punches correctly and keeping your guard up. How I'd sum him up is he has a good foundation in offensive basics, his punches are thrown with good technique and in good combinations. But defensively he's very rudimentary though, little head or upper body movement, relies on reach and size a lot and a basic high guard. Nothing remarkable about any of this, his athleticism, size and power is what takes him to a level most won't with these skills. But he's improving. His movement used to be awful but it's getting better. You see in the Breazeale fight he started to jab and then pivot or slip to the side, making him move more laterally and making him a bit more elusive. He's learned to counter punch and even parry and counter. But there are big wholes still in his game that are as you say untested. He still drops the right hand when he throws it. On the inside he hasn't shown me he knows how to deal with a clinch at all. He doesn't use his head to create a barrier in close to find space for shots, or use his shoulder or forearm either to do this. He doesn't gain head control when clinched or tie up an arm like good clinchers like Wlad, Lewis, Ward, Hopkins etc do.
Physical prime, yes. But technically he has room for improvement. Wlad is technically great but on the slide physically. This could be a classic fight.