In world title fights Joshua has been willing to fight top up and coming fighters

Joshua was just another prospect in 2016. Back then Wilder was prime. More recently Hunter was in there for a bit, Rivas was there, Joshua never fought Hrgovic, only now taking Dubois due to easy style matchup. Look at how everyone's treating this fight, they know Dubois is easy work. There is Kabayel, aj didn't fight Sanchez, Ajagba (not very good but better than Martin) was there for a bit, and a parker rematch was on the table due to Parkers recent run, his best run yet. Ignoring the young guys he still could've fought Zhang who is far more dangerous than Dubois but we know this was planned, his team probably convinced Usyk to drop the belt for this fight so joshua/Fury becomes a possibility. Trash

 

2018, 2019, 2020

When he was avoiding the top 10 after Usyk and searching for Ngannou, Helanius, Wallin and Franklin

Dubois is a good win on paper, emphasis paper. Styles make fights Dubois is a bonehead up and down fighter who just took it to Hrgovic and he was still getting outboxed until Hrgovic gassed. Now i know Hrgovic is crap regardless, but aj didn't know that or he would've fought him. Dubois already lost to Joyce, did nothing to Usyk, dropped by Lerena like 3 times, struggled with Miller. After aj beats him do you honestly think he's going on a good run ? Guys like Kabayel, Jalolov, Ajagba are coming up, Zhang exists, Parker is still kicking around. Dubois is getting cooked and a win over him isn't aging well. You can talk about a win over triple D all you like in the end it's not going to mean much

Look in the forum. Almost Nobody thinks aj/dubois is close, and there's a reason.

 

What ? Lmfao. That's a 3 year span no excuses. Regardless of world title fights he could've fought several prime fighters

I mean, okay ? That's too specific for me but if just world title fights sure, he beat whoever had those belts. Past it Povetkin > Martin despite Martin having a belt. Pretty simple. That resume in general is still fluffed with well past it fighters and he's been feading on low risk pretty recently

 

A bunch of excuses joshua was inactive. 3 years was plenty of time to get those fights made even with Ruiz 1 and 2, Pulev, Povetkin. Fighting once per year is a personal problem. Usyk was in 2021 I never listed that year

Hunter drew with povetkin, Pulev did nothing to be ranked above Rivas and Hunter, he just was. Ruiz was not ranked first time, he was a replacement for miller and beat the crap out of aj.

After Usyk he could've fought Hrgovic, Kabayel, maybe Ajagba, Sanchez, rematched Parker instead of Wallin, Ngannou, Helanius recently. You can't excuse that, aj didn't get brutally knocked out so why would he need a tune up ? The rest of the group was fighting eachother except aj.

 

Look how inactive aj is from 2019-2021

After beating Parker in August 2018 (good win) he waits until February 2019 to fight Miller who i dont remember beating anyone, loses to a late replacement, trains about 6 months just to run from Ruiz, does nothing until December 2020 for his mandatory. Tries to get a Fury fight, fails, signs for an Usyk fight after that fight gets mandated but he had several months between these events

Even if we're generous, after the Usyk fight he took the easy route, his best opponent Wallin ffs, and let's not forget how Wallin was gifted against a journeyman. He wasn't like Parker, Wilder and Zhang were past it but i would've perferred that to his recent opposition. I wouldn't even have complained if he fought Zhang because Zhang has been old for years now. He shows up after all the dust is settled. But Dubois tho, I'll give him that.

 

Kind of an aside to all this, as I agree with much of what you have been writing here. I also don't think 2019-2021 tells us much though like you said, because COVID happened.
But before that? Nah, Joshua was taking the **** taking 9 months off (2018-2019) while holding 3 of the belts (it wasn’t like he was the wrong side of 35).

 

Joshua fought legit competition and Wilder barely did.

 

You ignored this

He still could've the following Rivas and Hunter instead of searching for a Jarrell Miller fight in 2019/2020 before his Ruiz loss or his mandatories after but even if we just forget that, his recent run is completely cut off from this circumstance so what's the excuse then ?

 

1) Sep 2018 Joshua v Povetkin
2) Apr 2019 Joshua v ??? (Date and venue in place - Wembley, UK - fans booked vacations, flights, and hotels)
3) Jun 2019 Joshua v Miller
Fight 2 was cancelled at Wembley, UK to pursue fight 3 at MSG, USA. Circumstances ultimately boiled down to Team Joshua wanted to fight Miller in America.


I think Fury is an odd inclusion as he was stripped and then retired. But sure, he gets crap for that. You are correct about Usyk, and to be honest it was annoying me but he just reliquished the IBF. But sure, the circumstances for each of them are different:
Fury was stripped then retired.
Usyk's schedule for the most part was dictated to him by both Joshua and then Fury.
Joshua wanted to cancel his Wembley date in April 2019 so he could pursue greater fame against Jerrell Miller at MSG.


I don't believe Joshua having to win three different world title fights to get those titles is relevant to the point I was making. Because if you hold three belts, you have to defend those belts with regularity. On the plus side, more belts = more prestige = more money. On the down side, more belts = more commitments.

Same applies to Usyk, or whoever.


Anyway, not my intention to derail the thread. Joshua was a good champion, I have no issues with his opponent selection (excluding Miller), but he could have and should have been more active. Something like an injury (or even COVID) will always crop up. You make hay while the sun shines.