Anthony Joshua's Power

I think he is a poor man's Lennox Lewis in this similarity... he thinks too much & he is trying to be the perfect boxer.

AJ is looking to be technically perfect. Very few heavies in history have been that good. That's for welters, middles, batams and what 'av you. There's also the confidence side of things. See a sportz psychologist and stop approaching it like chess. He should see it as a mark of disrespect that a man who he turned into a meme years ago (Whyte) is going life and death with this guy, and his promoter wants it. Although Franklin is better than we credit it him for, AJ is still way ahead of him.

But if we really want to know what the elephant in the room is, it's Eddie. It's he who is blocking the Wilder fight yet putting this on. A rematch with Whyte, more talk about fighting the elite, and disappear until next summer. If AJ binned Eddie he would be better for it. He won't get any confidence from rematches or beating someone again.

 

He’s been gun shy since the Ruiz fight.
They’ll not go near Wilder.

 

He still has the power he's just gone negative since Ruiz.

 

He is gunshy. That fight was a shocker.

Hard to see Franklin making it out of the first round with Wilder.

AJ Fury now then both retire

 

AJ has power definitely. As someone else said he’s fighting negative now and is gunshy. The old AJ who wasn’t scared to get hurt would’ve been walked through Franklin last night, who has a decent chin but seems feather fisted.

Thing is I don’t even think AJ’s chin is THAT bad, he’s just so scared of getting hurt now. He’s a very sensitive fighter I think, does a lot of overthinking and has affected him badly.

 

Approx. 4 months ago I wrote in this forum that I believe that AJ and Matchroom will part ways within 12 to 18 months and I stand by that.

 

Ruiz would blow Franklin away, Franklin was throwing (and landing) the same shot over and over again last night and AJ still couldn’t counter the counter.

I wanted AJ to lose last night I can’t lie but after a few rounds I started to feel sorry for him, he just looks awful. Then the antics at the end?!! Didn’t make any sense as they had been touching gloves in between rounds!

 

He should. AJ is in serious danger of not only having rematches that do not maketh sense, but he might lose on of them. Eddie should be fighting tooth and nail for a wilder or fury fight. Not Shite or someone he has bested already.

 

Then when Franklin turned around to address it he went in for this really awkward clinch to try and defuse the situation. It's like when the school bully has a go at the class nerd not expecting any comeback then tries to be his mate immediately when he stands up for himself.

It's going to be interesting how Matchroom and DAZN match him from here. DAZN are paying him daft money and aren't here to fund his rehab. They won't want any more Franklin level opponents and if that does happen the least they're going to expect is him blasting them away. But at the same time they're all likely to have been alarmed by that performance. That was supposed to be a confidence building bum fight where you blast off the cobwebs. Based off that they probably don't want him in with the top guys either. I wonder if they've got some kind of performance related break clause? Maybe look to cash him out soon against a big gun and call it quits.

 

Firstly, credit to Franklin, solid chin and much better than I gave him credit for.

Secondly, AJ has power, it's not for question. But he doesn't have the confidence to fully commit and go for KO's. Despite Franklin's durability, AJ should have been able to beat up and punish Franklin and stop him that way. A young AJ would have done this. There is a mental block with AJ. He should be in his physical prime but mentally...he is shot to bits. As much as I'd want to see Fury and Wilder fights for AJ, if I was handling him, I'd be stepping down in competition and build him back up. 3 or 4 fights against the likes of Whyte, Ortiz, Zhang etc and then step up again.

 

He won and his next fight will sell, whoever it is. DAZN probably grew its potential subscriber base 2-3x last night and that's the main thing for them. Other than that, agree with everything you've said here, a cash-out (or two) is the most likely thing. No more comeback fights.

 

WHY is he so reactive? why does he give up the centre of the ring? why did he wait for this failed american football player who was a janitor a couple of years ago and couldn’t put a dent in Pavel Sour to make the first move?

it was all set up for him to beat the f*ck out of this bum and call Fury a ducking sh*thouse dosser post-fight, but he couldn’t do it

 

I don't necessarily think it's the power that's deserted him, it's confidence and the killer instinct he once had.

What he needed last night was a less awkward opponent. I can see the logic, Franklin (being a former Whyte opponent) provides a good narrative and segues nicely into a Whyte fight. Someone fairly static like Brezeale or Chisora was probably the style they needed.

Early career, he was so exciting to watch because he was aggressive, spiteful and had a killer instinct. Since Ruiz, Joshua looks a bit tentative and you can see the confidence drain out of him and frustration set in as soon as things aren't going his way.

Looking at the top 20 heavyweights - if you were Hearn, it's actually fairly challenging to match Joshua now. In my view there are SO many potential banana skins where things could go disastrously wrong if an opponent smells blood or Joshua is getting frustrated.

I'm no Joshua fan, but I am trying to be objective. Out of the BoxRec top 20, if I was his promoter and wanted a sure fire win, the only opponents I'd target out of them would be:

Whyte
Parker
Ortiz
Dubois
Pulev
Chisora
Ajagba
Demirezen

Out of those, only Whyte and Dubois are remotely marketable fights. Given the profile of Joshua and the DAZN deal behind him, this has to be considered and it doesn't really leave many matchmaking options. I can imagine DAZN allowing the likes of Franklin as a comeback fight, but the expectation (given the money they signed Joshua for) would be that beyond that - opponents will be far higher profile.

For any of the others (and outside of the obvious 2 this includes Ruiz, Joyce, Wilder, Sanchez, Bakole, Makhmudov, Gassiev, Wallin, and Hrgovic) I would be a bit wary. I'd make Joshua a fairly heavy favourite vs all of them bar Joyce and Wilder (perhaps Sanchez too but I haven't watched him a great deal).

The point I'm trying to make is, if you're the defacto number 3 or 4 in the division, as a promoter you wouldn't want to be particularly wary of as much as 9 of the BoxRec top 20. By the same token, I'd fancy Usyk and (a motivated) Fury to beat all of them fairly handily, with a couple of tricky fights (Joyce and perhaps Wilder).

I really expected Joshua to blow Franklin out with ease, but an awkward and durable opponent was probably the last style they should've matched Joshua with.

That said, even though I think Fury would probably win and look good in doing so, I'd really like to see Fury vs Joshua. It's a huge event and it's a shame really that it's not for undisputed.