We lost on an unification fight, but got two better fights instead....what's not to like?

I'm not sure about Ruiz, I think he gives him problems... Perhaps after 3-4 fights against Parker/Chisora or the aged Povetkin/Pulev, then step up to Ruiz when he's put a few more KO's on the highlight reel.

Agreed Fury is all kinds of wrong for him, he's a head**** as well as levels above in skill.

I don't think he has much chance with AJ without some warmups either - he's never really been out of the ring this long, he ain't taking that battle on with rust and getting away with it.

 

I wouldn't even refer to Breazeale or Arreola as gatekeepers... And Stivernes nothing special either.

Parker, Whyte and Pulev have been slightly better than gatekeepers for this (not great) era despite going through phases where they don't look up to their best.

Povetkin at anywhere near prime annihilates the whole lot of these.

 

I don’t “always” bring up age, you’ve tried this tact before.

I bring up the age in regards to Povetkin and Pulev because they are at the tail end of their careers but Pulev is still capable, as is Povetkin to a certain level and Povetkin especially is far removed from his prime.

The problem with Ortiz is he was old when he kicked off, he can’t get the break out fights he’s desired and his performances have been pretty consistent.

Povetkin has looked depleted imo or started to around the Rudenko fight, he arguably lost the Hunter fight and I’m a massive Povetkin fan.

Now regarding “scoring” fights and fighters “ducking” fighters you cannot move the goalposts when it suits your agenda.

If Wilder “ducked” Whyte, Joshua and now you’ve put in Chisora, Whyte and AJ ducked Ortiz.

If in your words Szpilka was “outboxing” Wilder despite the scorecards having Wilder 2/4/4 points up and then getting KTFO, you cannot then say people who believed Parker beat Whyte are incorrect as you have been doing.

 

A 40 year old inactive Arreola just dropped and gave Ruiz jr a very tough fight.

As for a prime Povetkin I fully agree but my point to the insane poster is that he is far from “prime”.

 

If we're on that train, the Whyte we're talking about in this whole conversation is just a totally different animal to the one Joshua beat anyway... But then Joshua now is better too...

 

I should have said that he is likely to lose against Usyk in my opinion.

I feel that Usyk's boxing skills will tie AJ in knots, lets not forget that AJ telegraphs everything and isnt a difficult fighter to read.

The worst opponents for him are those with a high boxing IQ and advanced level skills.

Isn't that Usyk?

 

Sure.

But is that enough to negate a 4" reach advantage? To say nothing of a huge gulf in power.

If Delboy can connect against a younger, lighter and presumably faster Usyk, would you bet against AJ getting at least as much purchase and doing more damage?

I think the first few rounds are boring, Usyk clowns him for a few rounds and then AJ turns up the aggression around 7-8 and stops him before the end.

Usyk isn't a sacrificial lamb, but I'd feel very generous to him if I called it a 60/40 for AJ.

But hey, we're all entitled to our opinions and maybe we'll find out soon enough

 

Whyte is light years ahead of bums like Stiverne and Breazeale.

That isn't saying much, but it's the truth.

What has Stiverne ever done?

Who has he ever faced?

Breazeale is known for being beaten by AJ with ease, and then being twatted into the stratosphere by Wilder in about 45 seconds.

Arreola?

Another bum.

Ortiz is the only one who it could be argued was a handful...about 25 years ago.

Now, he's basically a partially sighted pensioner with a pacemaker.

 

They are at the tail end of their career but they were still top 15 opponents when Aj fought them so it doesn't matter. Vitali was at the tail end of his career when he beat Chisora. Holmes was at the tail end of his career when he schooled Ray Mercer, the same Ray Mercer that gave Lewis hell, beat Tommy Morrison and scored a close decision against Holyfield. If they are still able to hang with the top fighters despite being out of their prime it doesn't matter all that much for resume. Aj never ducked Ortiz because it was Ortiz who rejected the offers. Whyte tried to fight Wilder for years

 

It is mind boggling to the mental gymnastics you Limmeys go thru with dissing Wilder.............you are dead afraid he would land and lays Fury out...FACT.

The questions is ......is Fury landing the one in a million shot behind the ear again because before that it was no "azzwhopping", guaranteed and Wilder never spit his mouth piece out and quit, another fact.

Fury takes Wilder a lot more serious than you clowns.

Ruiz sucks beyond sucks and still made the Bodybuilder quit.....only Brits talk him up because he stopped their hero.

Usyk is a joke.......can you imagine Holmes/Tyson/Holyfield/Bowe would lumber around with those two bums Witherspoon and Chisora.....Tyson would wax those two in ONE facking night.

Old Fossil Foreman would have put that local club fighter Chisora out of his misery in no time.

Heavy bag poster boy Whyte, Russian Hype job Povetkin, that bum from Bulgaria and last but not least cream puff Hunter.......a sad crowd.

Loud mouth Hearns all talk no action.........got played like a fiddle.

I will laugh my azz off if Wilder pulls the trick on Fury......

Usyk/AJ will be like watching paint dry......

BTW, mega Boxing money is in the US, no ifs or buts, end off.

 

How is Whyte light years ahead?

Arreola is a bum yet at 40yo and inactive just dropped Ruiz and gave him hell afterAJ virtually ran from him for 12rds?

Im not saying Stivernne or Arreola are great, just highlighting the fact that Whyte, Parker etc aren’t so “special” themselves.

In fact I’d pick Hrgovic, Joyce, Usyk, Yoka right now to beat the best versions of the above.

 

Ortiz rejected an offer which would have given him little time for a proper camp and for the record I think AJ wins that fight.

Again regarding age, you are missing the entire point again. Povetkin for instance had been on the slide 3 fights before the AJ fight.

After the AJ fight he was tepid with Fury, arguably lost against Hunter he had obviously slipped and I would pick a few of the young guns to beat him without GKTFO first.

Also using Ray Mercer in the way you did was a very poor example.

Ray was 30 when he beat Morrison, 31 when he lost to Holmes. Mercer was 34 when he LOST to Holyfield and 35 when he lost to Lewis.

He was 41 when he got destroyed of Wlad, that is closer to the age of Povetkin and Pulev when they won/lost to Whyte and AJ. Again fighters age differently at 34/35 Povetkin was still going good, which is my point regarding Povetkin.

For the record as I’ve already said Mercer never beat Holyfield, in fact Holyfield dropped him with a body shot and scored a close but clear victory imo.

 

So regardless Aj never ducked him, Ortiz was never a mandatory for Aj's belt if i can remember correctly.

YOUR missing the point. The entire point i tried to say was that if Povetkin is still skilled enough to hang with the top 15 fighters despite being past his prime it doesn't matter all that much. He beat Whyte (who has a better resume than Wilder) and beat Fury and others. Povetkin is well past it but at that point he was still a top 15 fighter. You missed my entire point. You missed it so much that you prove my point. I used HOLMES as an example. Because Holmes was in his 40s when he schooled Mercer, before this Mercer blew Morrison out the water, gave Holyfield a good fight and gave Lewis one of his TOUGHEST fights, all the while he got schooled by a old ass Holmes before this. Holmes was well past it but he was still able to hang with top 15 fighters such as Holyfield and Mccall.

Fighters age differently yes but that only proves my point further. The fact that Povetkin destroyed top 10-15 fighter Whyte 2 years after Joshua beat him proves that old Povetkin was still a good win and that win aged well. It's not like Povetkin was shot to bits by 39 like Tyson was. Wilder in contrast has beaten nobody but Stivern ? And Ortiz. Yes Arreola dropped Ruiz but he slimmed down by DOZENS OF POUNDS and his punch resistance likely decreased similar to what happened with Roy Jones Jr. After he got dropped and rocked he delt with Arreola easily and won 9-3, most people had the scorecards even wider

 

But Povetkin is shot, you’re missing MY point that Povetkin is ****ing done and any top tier fighter worth his salt should NOT have lost to him at this stage in his career, which reflects BADLY on Whyte.

You are now comparing RJJ losing muscle mass coming back down to 175 with Ruiz weighing in the same as he did iirc when he lost to Parker (a guy YOU claim to be a gatekeeper) and suddenly his punch resistance has gone? Listen to yourself The fact is he got dropped off a guy who was 40 and you never rated to begin with, Ruiz looked bad and only two fights ago he beat AJ making him bottle it and quit.

No doubt you are going to try and deflect as you have been doing

 

Wilder is slot of things but you can't question that he has ONE PUNCH power and he did drop Fury twice.
If I was Wilder I would come out and just empty the clip on Fury because I know I have the power to hurt him. Could be a very fun fight while it last.
Funny thing is I think AJ has a bad chin and USYK is fast and throws from the southpaw stance so I don't think you have to be a huge hitter to hurt AJ.
Flip it around and Usyk has never been hit by a heavy with AJs power either. Think its a fun fight as well.