Pov or Parker. It would make sense for it to be Ruiz but the way he turned up in the rematch means I cannot place him in there. Whyte is certainly not his best win, he was below where he is currently for sure
But it depends what Parker does with the rest of his career. I don't think he's as focused or good as many people seem to. His Hughie and Whyte fights were questionable.
I'll say Sasha. Purely on the basis that the biggest detraction you could make from that win (Pov's age) has since been somewhat extenuated. Povetkin's results since that loss have shown he still has a lot to offer the HW division. The other three are a toss up. Whyte has aged well as a win, but Whyte's significant improvement in those 5 years can't be forgotten. Ruiz showed Joshua's ability to adapt, albeit against a grossly overweight and borderline unmotivated opponent. Parker, on paper, should be Joshua's second best win by a mile. A champion in his prime with fast hands, decent power and great resilience, but he would then go on to lose to Whyte and stagnate as a fighter under a limited coaching setup. You also can't discount the fact that the ref's **** poor performance, whether through intent or naivety, was to the benefit of Joshua as the taller man.
There is doubt about it though. Wlad I understand but I’m fairly confident Joshua would beat a prime Povetkin as well. He wasn’t even that past it when he fought AJ at 39.
Denis Bakhtov, just kidding! Still makes me laugh how that guys nickname/alias is Darth vader? I’d say Povetkin after klitschko, stopping him was a big deal compared to only ud Ruiz
Title wins against the ex champions will always hold more gravitas all other things being equal. Yes if Parker’s career fizzles out from now on then that will reduce the gloss off that win for AJ. But that goes for all names on a resume, what they do afterwards does count to some extent.
If you go through AJ's record, it's decent but not great in my opinion. WK was old and hadn't fought for a long time, and let's not forget before AJ got brave.. Fury completely dominated WK in his back garden, boring fight to be honest but Fury was never in any sort of trouble, AJ went life or death with WK, AJ was lucky not to be stopped. Whyte was injured going in to their fight, should never have taken it, Whyte had surgery the very next day. Whyte has come on a bundle since then, so has AJ, but it's hard to say it was AJ's best win. Parker, AJ didn't want to get involved, AJ didn't have the confidence to put it on a smaller man, we have seen since with Ruiz why AJ didn't want to take many risks. Povetkin, decent enough win, but again an older, more worn version, And before AJ.. Povetkin had two decision wins against Rudenko and Hammer, then had a up and downer with David Price (great KO but it's Price) and since AJ Povetkin has beat Hughie Fury by decision and was lucky to draw with Michael Hunter. Takam, very late substitute, fair enough, decent win, lots of complaints at the time over the stoppage, AJ was on top, was winning well enough but was blowing out his backside, Chisora scored a more convincing stoppage over Takam. Eric Molina.. whatever. Breazeale, well, unbeaten, big, but we've seen since (and before) Breazeale isn't exactly hard to hit, isnt a legit top Heavyweight. Wilder cleaned him out in spectacular style, AJ beat him round after round and this fight made me question AJs apparent "huge power", if you're hitting Breazeale flush for 6 rounds and he is still standing.. then you are not a "monster" puncher. Charles Martin, won the title because his opponents knee blew out, has since lost to Kownacki and we've seen what happened to the Polish Homer Simpson, Martins best win is who? In my opinion one of the worst heavyweight champions of all time. Ruiz, the first fight when Andy looked like he was at least fit, AJ got slapped around, dropped 4 times, second fight Ruiz looked fat, slow and unfit and still went the distance, AJ boxed his way to a decision. AJ got the job done, that was the most important thing but I wasn't overly impressed. Has anybody got any toilet tissue? I need some after taking a huge dump on AJ.
That's pretty much what I came on here to write. I think the ref in the Parker fight was dodgy, negated the entire inside game, otherwise he'd be up there. Ruiz Jr was a very disciplined performance under massive pressure.