How good of a run is Franklin, Helenius, Wallin, Ngannou?

Yeah that’s not really any better to be honest mate

 

Well Wilder is better than Wallin and the other 3 cancel each other out. Not much between them though, both solid if unspectacular runs.

 

This run is better than anything Fury achieved in his career.

 

Yeah fair enough. From my perspective that was an international price hike to a sports subscription service. I doubt Joshua on the come back shifts many subscriptions in Japan; boxing is just content to the Japanese market. Baseball is the main sport on DAZN over here.

But sure from a boxing fans perspective if that is the only thing you are getting DAZN for then doubling the subscription price is galling.

I saw Franklin as a decent comeback opponent coming off back to back losses, and as I say it was just part of my subscription (from my perspective I don't really see that as much different from subscribing for Sky Sports)

Helenius is acceptable as a last minute replacement when he had been preparing for Whyte (plus they cancelled the PPV).

Wallin is a solid opponent for me. And the manner of the win was impressive.

Ngannou, yeah, like yourself I would rather he had fought Zhang. But I understand the cash grab. However, I really don't like the winner of that fight being matched with the winner of Fury v Usyk. The winner of Zhang v Parker deserve a shot next (after Hrgovic). Joshua is free to go after money, but being inserted into another title fight is not on really.

Having said all that, he will have completed these 4 fights in under 12 months. So I think it is a good run relative to his peers in this era. Though I think all the top contenders should have had similar schedules and especially the champions need to be more active.

 

Edit: I just realised you might be comparing Parker's win over Wilder with Joshua's win over Wallin. If that is the case, I agree Parker's win is better.

But if it is Fury's win over Wilder, I would say: Sure, Wilder can be classified as better than Wallin on that face of it, but Fury already had the beating of Wilder, so that needs to be considered. Like, no one gave Wilder a chance in fight #3 after what happened in #2. I don't think it's far fetched to say Wallin would have seemed a harder opponent for Fury at that time.

Plus a big factor is how long these runs took to complete.

Fury took just over 24 months to complete a similar quality run to Joshua who will have completed his four fights in just over 11 months.

 

Sorry ... I'm not quite sure what you're saying. If you're saying that we should be harder on Fury about the opposition because he was champion at the time then I agree.
AJ does need to build himself back up again - and he isn't the champion - which is why I'm not overly critical of the opposition with him. When I said 'OK but not great ' its more to do with the Ngannou fight, as opposed to him taking on another, more highly ranked boxer. It's my opinion that the Ngannou fight with Fury was just a distraction money-grab so I'm disappointed that AJ has followed that route. If he'd have continued the trajectory with a higher ranked boxer I wouldn't really criticise him at all.

 

He was rebuilding. Three trainer changes in last four fights (Garcia for Usyk II, James for Franklin and Helenius, Davison for Wallin). Regaining confidence and composure as well as exploring some new styles, tricks, and approaches is what a comeback is all about, and it is yet to be seen if it crescendos with some big win. This story is not over yet, and let me tell you Joshua has one of the best stories in modern heavyweight boxing. Very human, very thought provoking. Wouldn't have believed if I was told a few years back that I will be saying tis about the British Living Animatronic, but the fact is he is producing an entertaining career.

New UK darling rises. Big hitter. Beats a domestic rival. War with a viciously determined Klitschko. Collects scalps of some fringe and top contenders and relicts of Wladimir's era, opposing Wilder's American hype, generating speculations about the potential intercontinential showdown of colossal punchers. BOOM. Tripped on Ruiz and nearly drowned in an ocean of accurate criticism (of flaws, overconfidence, fake media persona, and questionable character) culminating in becoming a mere villain in Usyk's story and utter ego death after Rage on the Red Sea where he desacrated the Ukrainian flag, went on a deranged rant, and inexorably shattered his Frank Bruno public relations persona. The end?

Show must go on

Rolled the dice, switched trainers, worked under a barrage of doubt and triumphantly callous remarks, allowed himself to act more in line with his true character (even if it's narcissistic, thuggish, and almost tyrannical; such integrity is far more respectable and healthy than repressed nice guy-persona.) Average performance, average performance, *click*, fantastic performance against Wallin (regardless of how you rate him). The story is interesting again. Comparisons are born. Loyality and faith is rewarded. Moves on to Ngannou which is still a match-up that needs to happen as deconstructing or stopping the Predator will reclaim the honor lost to the MMA philistines. Kaching. Stakes rise. Hopefully leading to a titanic clash with another elite heavyweight, in which much more than a stagnant, meaningless 0 will be on trial—for shattering an undefeated record is miniscule compared to mauling a man who convinced himself reclamation of grace and glory is possible.

I suspect Joshua, when he steps into the ring for another career-defining fight, will perhaps have a more ardent support than before, for he now willingly and knowingly or not examplifies themes as old as mankind. Overcoming. Loss. Reintegration. I willl most likely be one of those supporters as well since quoting Verbinski, Byrkit, and Logan, no man can walk out of his own story, and if there is one thing I admire about Anthony, it's that he ain't trying to quit his.

 

Ultimately it is what it is. But we just have to remember only one of these opponents was world ranked at the time.

 

It's not good at all. I can understand having an easy come back fight, even two is acceptable if you are fighting often, like 2 fights in 6 months. But I can't deny being disappointed with him picking Ngannou. I miss the Joshua who used to pick the best available opponents most of the time, this safety first version bores me.

 

Wilder fight was October 2021. That’s pretty much one fight a year which as a champion against that standard of opposition is dreadful.

 

To be fair, Wilder was supposed to be next.
And Whyte was supposed to be instead of Helenius.

So at least Joshua is trying to take meaningful fights. For whatever it´s worth.

 

Ahh, context is such a wonderful thing but, haters have just gotta hate. As has already been pointed out, Ruiz completely destroyed AJ's confidence and I think he genuinely put in the graft for the Usyk fights and the disbelief of him losing in the rematch led to the mental meltdown, after which AJ got panned on Social Media to within an inch of his life, justifiably so in many people's eyes but, that kind of scrutiny and criticism and outright hatred can be hard for anyone to bounce back from, let alone us mere mortals.

I actually think his return from those back to back losses has been well calculated and bought him likely one more win from Undisputed and if not, another huge bag so, where's the big issue?

 

If You want judge it lets not forget that many people think Fury lose to next Anthony opponent.

Franklin was comeback fight after loss. Helenius was just "last minute" change for Dillian Whyte who was in top 10 and who was catch on steroids.
Otto Wallin was top 10, after good win with good boxer Gassiev and many people here write that he can make Joshua many problems. There was even person who write that Joshua need controversial decision to win with him...

Ngannou is just chasing Gypsy Queen fight. I personal dont like it. High volume risk if smth going bad way and not many profits if he win.
I wouldnt choose him on their place but maybe they got some plan.

Remeber that Fury make all boxing shame after he look like crap in Ngannou fights. If Joshua win in good fashion Gypsy again got minus point.

The truth is that Joshua now dont have many good option. That's why they probably waiting to catch Fury fight where he have big chance for win. Fury last time looks awfull.

 

True, I'd forgotten they were replacements, had it been Whyte and Wilder that would of been respectable. But I still don't like him picking Wallin who I never rated and he could of picked Hrgovic or Zhang instead of Ngannou.

 

I don't get the derision for chisora.

He's fought everyone and outside fury and kabayel has always given a fight.

Oh and maybe Parker 2 ewhen he looked shot.

He's also fought and beat allot of Joshuas opponents either officially or robbed

I wonder why he's never fought Joshua been as though he's fought everyone else under the sun.

Hed be a much better opponent than the majority of that list and he's a fury opponent been as though weirdly they are going after every fury opponent bar wilder and the chisora.