Let's give Joshua credit and finally appreciate him

AJ - overhyped by British media, the biggest hype job since Ricky Hatton, they are both great boxers, but not ELITE fighters. Case closed, end thread.

 

Joshua's gained massive respect from me already. I loved the fact that as a champion he never ducked anyone and regularly took on the best challengers willing to fight him. Also loved the fact that in his shock defeat to Ruiz he went right back into the fire and beat Ruiz emphatically in his very next match.

He's still one of the top three HWs on the planet right now. Only the gap between him and numbers one and two is fairly wide (assuming Fury and Usyk are evenly matched). Tons of great fights still for him out there. Whyte rematch, Wilder fight, Joyce fight, some of the up and coming guys like Hrgovic and Makhmudov would be intriguing as well. Personally I'd love to see him fight Hunter or Gassiev; I think both would be quite competitive.

 

Assuming Wilder wants it, which time and again he's made it very clear he doesn't.

And if he didn't want it, despite it being a massive career high payday, when he was at the peak of his confidence then why on earth would he want it now?!

I'd definitely respect him going for the rematch, and although he'd be underdog this time he's still a live dog - don't forget how many people wrote him off as not standing a snowball in hell's chance in the Ruiz rematch, how many said it was pointless and Andy was just levels on him.

An Usyk rematch is a much bigger challenge, so it's the better fight for the record even if he loses again.

An Usyk rematch is already contracted, so it's far easier to get made too - as fans, we should want a cert fight made, not a fighter ducking the rematch to chase a fight that won't happen.

 

Top 4 or 5.

The Ruiz that struggled with Arreola mops the floor with Joshua again.

Tyson Fury toys with him and makes Joshua quit.

Wilder puts him to sleep.

Usyk makes him cry in the rematch.

And I'm sure some of the other top 10 have a great chance at beating him too.

 

I couldn't have summed it up better myself.

 

I don’t understand this obsession to praise a fighter for merely stepping in the ring with his mandatory. It’s not like he had a bunch of other options and went out of his way to make the Usyk fight, he just did what the sanctioning organization required him to do. And most of those who want to praise him to heavens for facing Usyk are the ones who were writing him off before the fight, claiming that he wasn’t that good at HW.

 

So we are now crediting fighters for honouring mandatory defences?

Let's remember Eddie was floating the idea of dropping a belt to avoid this fight and joked last night maybe they should of.

I am sorry but AJ was unified world champion, who should he be fighting? Dave Allen and Babic?

When you are near the top of the tree and hold 3 of the major belts your opponents should be very good.. you are going to have to fight mandatory challengers and that is the minimum expected.

Ruiz was a voluntary that went sideways, Ruiz wasn't the number 1 challenger, he got it on short notice and produced an upset.

And Usyk was a mandatory, AJ could either fight him or live with everybody saying he ducked Usyk.


I can't credit AJ doing what we should be expecting from unified champions.

 

Trouble is he got totally outboxed vs Usyk. Almost as one sided as Fury vs Wilder 1. That never bodes well for a rematch.

I wanted him to fight Ruiz again because I knew that was just a fluke, but he needs to stay the hell away from Usyk because no way is he ever getting the better of that guy.

 

No, top three. Usyk and Fury are the only two who are better.

Joshua comes in the same shape he did for Usyk, and pitches another shut out.

Wilder is a bum with a punch, just because Usyk undressed Joshua doesn't mean Wilder would.

And the only other with a real chance of beating Joshua is Joyce, whose way too open to actually pull it off.

 

Spot On.

 

The thing with Fury is first i think people heavily overrated him, and second you absolutely never know which version of him will shows up on fight night. And he pretty much wasted his prime doing completely b.c., and just talk, talk, talk, and that's what it.
Wilder and AJ are not in the same league. Wilder is QUITE clearly a protected fighter, and very very carefully managed. He also lives in some fantasy world, and can't accept he was beaten by way better man. He also refuse to improve, which was obvious from his ex-coach words.
He ain't nothing like Joshua. Joshua didn't use a single excuse both for Ruiz and for Usyk loses. He just say going back to drawing board and that he is always try to improve and get better, and such experience help him big time.

Sorry but it's absolutely ridiculous how Joshua is slammed for pretty much everything, yet some people are giving props for Wilder, who is an absolutely disgrace, he pretty much confirm that he ducked AJ, and then used TONS of all kind of ridiculous excuses for his Fury lose.
I cannot that guy seriously, sorry. He and Joshua are just not in the same league.

As far as Fury, he still is the other one that get a pass for so much s**** that he have done through the year.
Wasted 1,5 year of Klitschko time(and it was his last time on the division, which was a huge shame), ducking the rematch twice(i don't buy the b.c. excuses), he also popped dirty, and made all excuse to cover all that **** with the b.c.
Then he made a great comeback, then fight 2 *******, and totally destroyed Wilder and once again go into hiding.
The whole drama with the Joshua fight, Wilder rematch was all Fury and his team fault. And then i don't f****** buy his b.c. excuses with the COVID for the delayed rematch against Wilder. It was quite obvious to me, he was just not in a ***** shape.

And now we are still not sure if he is going to show and fight Wilder on Octomber, or he going to pull another ridiculous b.c.
I think he wasted his great potential and prime years.
And i'm pretty sure he will start declining pretty soon, pretty fast, because of his ridiculous lifestyle.

 

Though he hasn't much impressed me over the years, I think AJ performed 8 or 9/10 last night. It just wasn't enough as Usyk was also at his best. AJ's stamina was improved. He looked far less ponderous to me. Quicker of hand and foot. A peak performance imo. Will he stay at that level? I hope so as I'm looking fwd to the rematch.

All that said, the hype definitely doesn't help him any.

 

This is the straight up hater. Why you not tell us how many consecutive voluntary defenses Wilder has made in the row, when he won the WBC at first place?
He ducked Povetkin, he ducked Whyte, he ducked AJ, he ducked anyone alive, and fight bum after bum.

And pls tell me how many f******** title defenses Fury has?

If you cannot see the difference between this 2 and Joshua you obviously are beyond redemption biased blind guy.

 

AJ don't trust his chin and don't like being hit.

We've seen it since Ruiz I, he hasn't been the same, he isn't that "beast" any longer.

And after this his confidence will be shot to pieces, the first Ruiz fight could be passed off as a one off, a single punch that changed the fight..

Usyk gave AJ a boxing lesson and almost stopped him, this will take some getting over, AJ knows deep down Usyk is the better man.

You need to go back and look at AJ in the first Ruiz and since, AJ has changed, he isn't even the man who beat old man Klitschko.

 

Unless he comes in with a different approach, let's his hands go more and perhaps lands something significant earlier on...

Anything can happen - he'll be underdog and rightly so, but I don't think it's completely pointless.

Besides, I'd rather see another good fight between two of the top three like we had yesterday evening than see Joshua run away from it... Especially running away from it on the pretense of chasing a fight that'll never happen (Wilder).