Calm yourself the hell down, lad. I can't speak for Fleaman, but I did not insult you...unless you are overly sensitive to the point of paranoia. I expressed shock at your statement. If you want to interpret that as being insulting, then that's on you. Regarding the actual statement you made that I found shocking..., Usyk is beginning enormously overrated. If Joshua had let his hands go he would’ve won imo Both parts of this statement are, IMO, daft. Usyk is undefeated and has exceeded all expectations for him, with many believing he couldn't deal wit the big guys. How is he being overrated ? Regarding the second part of your statement, that's a bit like saying...IFyour aunt had balls she'd be your uncle. Similar statements I have seen before.... If Oscar had just kept using his jab in the second half of the fight, he would have beaten Floyd If Ortiz had just avoided that big right for a couple of more rounds, he would have beaten Wilder. IF, IF, IF... IMO, AJ is not good enough to beat Usyk...who was the reason he couldn't let is hands go any more than he did.
Fair point. I understand I'm in the minority but I stand by my opinion. Wouldn't you say he was more willing to get his hands dirty against Wladimir though? Ruiz commented on this as well. “I did have a lot of text messages of people telling me like, ‘Man, it was your fault. That’s why Anthony Joshua was not that aggressive. He’s thinking too much. He’s being too cautious.’ Us fighters, we shouldn’t care. I feel we should go out there with the bang. It’s scary. I feel that’s what fighters fear of them getting dropped, getting hurt, or getting knocked out. But this is boxing. You’re gonna get hit. You’re gonna get hurt. But the main thing is you got to have those cajones to get back up and to win the fight. We can’t really show that we’re hurt or that we’re scared. We got to keep going forward. We’re fighters. We gotta be dogs in there.” I think for this guy who's nearly unanimously favored to beat guys like Liston, Foreman, etc he had to show a lot more
Usyk was outclassing him, and he really went for it. But he wasn't anything like good enough. Joshua just isn't good enough to beat Usyk. He threw enough punches. He just wasn't able to land with meaning against a superior opponent.
People are saying Joshua should have thrown more because Joshua didn't stop Usyk, but he didn't even have him in as much trouble as he had Ruiz before Joshua was stopped himself. Had he thrown caution to the wind I think Usyk would have almost certainly knocked him out. I don't think Ruiz has shown himself to be a significantly harder hitter than Usyk Despite publicly shitting himself post fight, Joshua put up a very good fight. He deserves credit.
Which is why this rematch really makes me want to see Usyk vs Fury. The former noticeably didn't land a big perchentage of his punches, he was incredibly active so he still landed a lot of them but I don't think he was as accurate as in the first fight. I think Joshua being more aggresive this time around, coupled with his reach advantage, is the reason for this. He just didn't have the confidence to build on it. So how will Fury, with an even bigger height and reach advantage, who is also far more willing to rough it up and be aggresive than AJ deal with him ? Most posters think Usyk's superior ability will triumph, but I have this gut feeling that Fury is going to surprise us. Or maybe it just ends in a draw, leaving everyone in the forum sulking while you are laughing in the corner.
I don't think Fury will fight Usyk, but if he does, I think that Fury will win without too many problems.
While I definitely see your point of views and understand Joshua would've had to risk getting knocked out himself to go for it, I feel that's a risk he should've taken in the later rounds when he was falling behind and getting pieced up. In the 12th round in particular, he nailed Usyk with a good right I believe and didn't press his advantage. While Usyk wasn't exactly stumbling all over the ring, I think Joshua should've thrown caution to the wind, and risked getting knocked out to make something happen. It was the last round and he knew, or should've knew he had fallen behind (though judging by his post fight reaction that didn't seem to be the case) particularly in rounds 9 through 11. What did he have to lose at that point? I agree Joshua did much better this time around but I don't know. I feel like he could've done even better. Then again I think highly of him, and think he showed tremendous heart against Wladimir very rarely seen (even if his other assets don't quite match up).
Yes, but this is a good example of the stats not telling the actual story of the fight. Against Klitschko, Joshua threw everything at him in the 5th and emptied his gas tank. It earned him a KD, but the effort brought him to a virtual standstill, as his output plummeted for the next several rounds, while WK was unable to put him away. Joshua being KD'd in the 6th did little to help him recover. Once Joshua tapped into his reserves, by the 11th, his output went back to what it had been in the early rounds, to get the finish. Joshua's lower output in this bout had little to do with a lack of willingness to let his hands go against Klitschko. I'd actually suggest, somewhat ironically, it was caused by something quite the opposite, with a little bit of inexperience thrown in.
I kinda see it this way too. Joshua was overthinking the fight - too much thinking not enough doing. That takes nothing away from Usyk, who's style is going to create much to adjust and re-adjust to, throughout. But, this is where one might as well go for broke, in my opinion. Joshua played into his hands (again!). Continuously playing out the punches in your mind before throwing them leads to either poor or no shot selection.
Well they never do - ever. But it's this notion that Joshua didn't "throw hands". He did throw hands - and he trained to throw hands. And he had his "Klitschko Moment" against Usyk, too, but Usyk survived. AJ trained for aggression and was aggressive and threw many punches. I'm not keen on the notion that "one more punch" or "twenty more punches" or however many more punches would have resulted in a win. Because there is no evidence of that. Joshua had his busiest performance over the distance (or over ten, say), fouled, went to the body, in fact did absolutely everything that everyone called for him to do before the fight except win and even with (probably) a judge being paid off, he couldn't get it done. For me, Joshua would beat Usyk with the same frequency that Usyk would injure himself and with which Joshua would injure him. Regardless of the date or the "version of Joshua".
You hit the nail on the head. I thought Joshua fought his ass off and gave an outstanding effort. He simply just couldn't/can't beat Uysk. Folks seen to want to say Joshua sucks more than give credit to Uysk. I really don't understand it. The general forum seems to recognize how great he is but on classic, some folks just can't/won't give credit to modern fighters. Some people just love to live backwards.
Yeah, I'm not getting some of these vibes either. I am conscious that because I saw exactly what I expected to see (allowing that Joshua did a bit better than I thought he would both times), I might be absolutely blind to all contrary.
Any higher number of punches from him would in all likelyhood result in overall lower quality of punches - and with the way He looked in final 3 rounds, I think it's safe to say if He tried to be more aggressive earlier, then He'd have very hard time finishing the contest. He was staggering on his feet when He was waliking back to his corner after round 12 ended as it is. I think He fought a good fight, with good energy management - considering his capacity in that regard.
The guy has psychological issues - the psyche ultimately being as much a part of a fighters armoury as anything else. He must’ve been preoccupied with output, commenting post fight on his size and how he can’t naturally punch as frequently as a fighter like Marciano. I’ve yet to see the whole fight but it seems Joshua only began focusing in on Usyk’s body relatively late in the piece - and to notable effect. It’s one thing to meter yourself in deference to stamina (which the fighter knows best of himself) but earlier investment in body punching could well have on balance, slowed Usyk down much earlier in the piece - thereby putting less demands on Joshua to track him down later in the fight. Some might say that comes under boxing IQ - but imo, it really should’ve been a basic and obvious premed strategy.