Demsey* He's a tremendous unbeaten fighter, young hungry lion will come to fight, AJ needs to be careful or it'll lights out like v Ruiz
Taking a page out of Fury's book? I get that he needs a warm up fight for his warm up fight with Whyte but surely they could have done a bit better. How must AJ feel going from Usyk to this fella (no disrespect)? Why not someone like Bakole, Kabayel, Wallin? Names we've at least heard of!
Kinda funny you say that cause from that list Wallin is the only one Ive heard of. Reminds me of the early 00s when the Klitschko, the Valuevs and stuff started surfacing. All had great careers, but I had not heard about most of them, and their names were hard for a Puerto Rican to remember! (Also, Vitaly Typsko I think, Kostya Tszyu, Albert Sownoslki-though the Klitschko's, Tszyu and Sownoski are not that hard to remember nowadays to me for obvious reasons) and names i think hard to remember but can't. The last dude to beat Ricky Hatton comes to mind too.
Just goes to show where AJ’s head is at. He desperately needs these bums fights to get his confidence back but it’s just going to make him stagnate. He’s going to be shocked again whenever he fights a decent opponent.
I don’t agree with others saying this is an acceptable fight. Former Heavyweight champion of the world who has just lost two fights to an excellent fighter with a very difficult style for almost anyone. By all means take an easier fight to build a bit of confidence, but this is silly.
if you've never heard of him why would you say poor guy? wouldn't you see if he can fight before saying that? lol.
I think McKean being a top 40 fighter is okay as a comeback fight if Joshua is going to stay active. As it makes sense if it is hosted in Australia - you guys still get fair weather over there. He can then fight in the Northern hemisphere late spring (though that is wishful thinking based on Joshua's career being one of inactivity). Saying that, I don't really follow Australian boxing, but this is a bit of a head scratcher in terms of profile. From what I understand McKean has been fighting in 1,500-2,000 seater venues over there... Would Joshua v McKean even be realistic to host at say Brisbane stadium? McKean being from Queensland. And March in Brisbane should be good weather. Also, I assume Matchroom would look to fill the card with Australian talent. But does McKean have any kind of popularity in Australia? Basically, will Australians actually be up for seeing this fight?
Not shocked, thought they might give McKean a bit of a step up fight before throwing him in against Joshua. Raise his brand if nothing else.
Its pretty clear the poor guy is being served as a sacreficial undercooked lamb, with inedible shallet-butter sauce, also known as "Tylers Bull****!"
There probably isn't time for building him up. With all due respect to the bloke, he is there to be a warm body in a warm climate. But agreed, it's a massive step up going from Jonathan Rice to Anthony Joshua. Actually the more I think about this fight, the less I like it. If Browne couldn't get sanctioned to fight Dubois, how on earth can they make this fight?
Yep AJ is a huge name and should be able to fight anyone, there are lots of better fighters out there! This is ridiculous, screw the confidence building crap. AJ needs to fight the best he can to continue learning because slowly but surely, he's been getting a bit better every time out since the loss to Ruiz. The difference in skill levels between Ruiz & Usyk was huge (Usyk's level being pretty much off the charts), and a bad choice in retrospect because, even though AJ improved in the 2nd Ruiz fight, he hadn't improved enough to face Usyk. Joshua improved again in the 2nd Usyk fight and imo is even money against anyone right now except of course for Usyk and Fury. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see him beat Joyce or Wilder or anyone else. But this all depends upon AJ being hard at work constantly learning and improving.
Yeah, it's an incredible mismatch that should not be sanctioned. But this sport of ours is now renowned for its morals.