He probably will, but he is still probably good enough to give anyone a tough time. Fury should fight Joshua now. He doesn't look tough enough to have another fight with Wilder and hold up with Joshua in another tough fight. My friend pointed this out to me, and I agree.
^ this doesnt get nearly enuf credit. the sam peter fight was amazing. sam was on quite a streak before vitali annihilated his career. and vitali looked indestructible even up to retirement. never had one of those 'wow he looked old' fights. but case in point here, i always thought vitali was the better / more unbeatable fighter than wlad was. Vitali was just mean out there. I dont see wlad having that hunger anymore, why would he? Hes a surefire first ballot HOF, our generations Larry Holmes. Whats left to accomplish?! give it up wlad, ur last fight was a perfect one to go out on.
I don't wanna see Wlad ending up the same way as Roy Jones Jr. who tried to make a comeback but got knocked out again and again.
Wlad looked awfully slow against Joshua. The two times Joshua turned up the pace Wlad could no longer keep up. Maybe he needs the money after his split with Hayden.
hit below the belt. next time its a point. as a close personal friend of wlads we dont like to discuss it too often but here it is. hayden was drunk, she said she was 'sick of first round knockouts and wanted a man to go the distance'. i did my best. for wlad. but its been awkward ever since.
Even prime Wlad would struggle in this era. The second raters would have been the top raters when he was around. Timing is everything in boxing as Lewis said and Wlad benefited from an era filled with non-athletic plodders. He knows whats around him and he also knows he can't lay on their backs to win. He's retired for good.
Klitschkos have freakish physics, see how fit Vitali was vs. Sam Peter. However, Wlad was always the more fragile of the two and his long layoff didn't help vs. AJ. He's now years older and if history's any indication, considerably more rusty. Unless he's really been in training camp for 9-10 months looking sharp in elite level sparring, he has no business coming back let alone taking on AJ, even though like Wilder he's extremely beatable. I'll surely support him to take a dump on Hearn's master plan, but one would imagine both AJ and Wlad would take it safe having tasted each others power before, and going to the cards Wlad will be robbed blind even if he wins 9 rounds. Nowadays clearly beating someone means little in boxing, irregardless of location. Too many things stink to just come back and take on Joshua.
Wlad is older (by 2 years if he comes back in Q1 2019) and inactive. His personal life has also been chaotic so who knows where his head is right now. Wlad has always struck me as an OCD type of guy and if you can get into his head and interrupt his rhythm (like Fury did) then that is half the battle won. I personally think he loses badly.
Wlad should leave well enough alone...his performance against Fury was downright shameful, and he was lucky to escape with his life against Joshua I feel the Pile fight was highly overrated. I didn't see it as the "best version" of Wlad, he simply fought not scared for one of the few times in his career...