Thought it was very telling that they went for Franklin as an opponent rather than Whyte. You would expect Joshua to dispatch Whyte very handily. To fight a real pushover opponent like Franklin at this stage of his career is pretty revealing as to his mental state. Would love to know what our resident Matchroom “CV” spin doctor makes of Franklin as an opponent.
If Fury beats Usyk then the Whyte fight will look really lame. AJ needs Usyk to win for his commercial appeal to revive.
Regardless who wins out of Fury and Usyk, I think there’d be enormous public hunger to see Fury vs Joshua or Wilder vs Joshua. I think either of those two may actually do better commercially than the potential commercial fight.
Yes, but if Usyk loses, the days of AJ selling out stadiums to fight people like Whyte are over. His current commercial appeal hinges on Usyk being unbeatable. The Fury/Wilder fights rely on the commercial appeal of the opponent.
I have no problem with them fighting bums etc as long as they are active. AJ does need an easy fight to regain confidence etc but when you fight twice a year and it costs £20 a month to subscribe then I do have an issue. As you can’t have it both ways
He's coming off the back of 2 losses to arguably the p4p #1 and is working with yet another new training team so to be honest, a comeback fight with Franklin who's fresh in the minds of the UK public following a decent showing against Whyte is no real surprise and makes sense.
Most of the guys on the forum said Franklin beat Whyte, so what’s the problem with Franklin as an opponent after consecutive defeats to the Pound for Pound #1 ?
*consecutive defeats to a feather fisted cruiser whos best win at heavy is a shot to pieces old delboy chisora
Needs to blast Franklin out between rounds 4-8 and then immediately follow this up with a Whyte-level KO followed by maybe a Wilder-level fight if he wants to try and claw his popularity back If AJ stops him in under 4 then the level of opposition will look poor, and if it takes longer AJ will be seen as barely getting past future gatekeepers Still, fairly excited. A fight is a fight and I can't be arsed to get out of my DAZN contract
The CV Guru on here is allegedly a lad posting as @Mitch87 and he convinced me that Joshua's CV is on Xerox paper, the best quality paper in Rymans. The lad also informed the forum on the odd occasion that Wilder's CV is printed on soiled toilet paper with Fury's on recycled cardboard. Cannot argue with him as he has demonstrated a knowledge of CVs that nobody on here could even retain in their heads.
Yes, big month for AJ - while he struggles to sell any decent number of tickets against some mediocre boxer, the real tops are will be fighting for the undisputed.
I think it's about perception really. You'd expect Joshua to beat Whyte and Franklin easily. Fighting Franklin suggests to me his confidence is shot, as a loss to someone like Whyte, who is more of a household name and someone he's had a bit of a rivalry with suggests its higher stakes. What us forum guys think doesn't matter too much. Joshua's main market isn't forum nerds, it's people who buy PPVs for big fights. As a result, protecting the brand is the top priority.
Apparently the ticket sales haven't been great for this one. He needs a convincing KO and then Wilder/Whyte in the summer.
problem is that Franklin is the most boring opponent possible. there’s nothing to hook you other than “almost beat Dillian Whyte”, he’s an anonymous workmanlike American who somehow managed to carry Pavel Sour 10 rounds
