Has the klitschko fight changed your opinion ofJoshua against former heavy s?

It's still too early.

In a historical sense it only tells us that at age 42 Wlad had declined enough to lose to an 18 fight novice.

We need to see a lot more. But for now, Joshua has ticked enough boxes to move forward in his era.

 

let's put it this way, I wouldn't put money on him lasting more than a few rounds with Tyson...

last night, he looked out on his feet at times, and against a younger fighter, he would have been knocked out.

 

There was times in that fight where I thought Joshua's own people had ruined a good prospect, he looked hurt and confused but thankfully salvaged himself later. He came through it but was still over his head. It was a calculated risk that nearly went south.

With better opponents he would have been better prepared and fully equipped for a fight like that with an old timer. And he should have been really.

 

Credit to joshua for getting up and showing heart, and finishing strong, however he obviously does not seem to be a special talent like bowe or lewis.

 

I think Lewis and Bowe had better apprenticeships through the ranks because they fought more live journeymen and they were steered by real professional people. I don't rate Eddie Hearn at all. The only reason Tyson Fury got as far as he did was because he was about the only properly seasoned SHW contender. The ratings are made up of too many unproven giants. That was not the case in the 1990s.

 

He's done something Mike Tyson never did I'll give him that. Whatever he's got he's got bags of heart and character, to get up from that knockdown takes something special. Wlad might be old and past it but he's genuinely one of the hardest hitters of all time.

 

I wouldn't feel confident of putting money on Tyson beating a 19 fight Joshua.

 

A young Lewis woukd not have made it out of the 6th round after taking that right hand.

 

My opinion hasn't changed, to be honest.

I predicted before the fight that it would be Tyson-Holmes all over again, but it wasn't.

While Wlad was in great shape for his age physically and mentally, I think he lost his timing as he was missing badly with his left hooks.

AJ had way harder time vs 41 y.o. Wlad than Holy had vs his 40+ y.o. stars Foreman and Holmes.

I think AJ is very good but lacks in some departments.

His chin is good but not great, he was badly hurt in 5th and barely got up in 6th.

His stamina is a bit strange. AJ looked gassed in the middle of the fight, but came back strong.

AJ's footwork and jab aren't great by any means.

On the other hand, Joshua showed that he has champions' mentality, recovers well and doesn't crumble even when he's badly hurt.

He's physically as strong and powerful as the strongest HWs in history.

AJ also is a very hard hitter and has good arsenal of punches.

My conslusion: AJ is extremely gifted physically, has mentality of great fighters, is in great shape. Speed is good for a guy of his size. Skillwise he's good but has flaws. His weaker sides are footwork and jab.

If we talk his chances vs ATG HWs, I think he'd be clear favourite vs older and smaller greats (enormous size advantage).

He'd have a far harder time vs larger HWs who could take a punch and dish it out.

AJ is very good, but he's not unbeatable as we saw yesterday.

 

You've got to think how great he would be with Manny Steward training him.

 

Watching it again right now, it's interesting how many back hands Klitschko landed lol.
Whoever said he fought like an old school fighter aint wrong.

 

Yes, Manny liked working with that that type of fighters.

 

The AJ of last night wouldn't have defeated any of the great heavyweights in their primes.
He barely barely defeated a way-past-prime W.Klitschko.

On the plus side, he's still young and there's time for big improvements and he's shown great heart to win against the first real world class opponent he's faced.

 

Actually it's changed my opinion of Wlad! He now makes my top ten!