I've recently seen some interesting opinions on ESB about this fight. Some folks are under the impression that the Joshua who was stopped by Dubois was somehow significantly diminished in both skills and physical ability to the "real" Joshua. This is very curious because many were saying Joshua was on the best run in the HW division after his four fight win streak. He is known to be a gym rat, has had few wars, and always comes to fights in great shape. He was 34 for the Dubois fight, typically the absolute peak for most modern HW's. I guess I'm wondering, when did this steep physical decline occur? Regarding skills, folks were claiming that the Otto Wallin performance 10 months prior was Joshua's most complete, and that the Ben Davison pairing was paying dividends. The Ngannou KO was said to be more evidence of a polished, renewed fighter. When did the steep decline in skill occur? Is it possible, and I expect to lose some folks here, but is it possible that styles make fights, and that the skills that worked so well on older or lesser fighters don't work against a prime top 5 opponent? I recall very clearly that after the Andy Ruiz Jr. loss folks held the same opinion. They were sure that the "real" Joshua didn't show up. Similarly, after the Usyk loss, folks were sure that "the old aggressive Joshua" would have been victorious. What do you think?
I think AJ physically was still as good as ever, but there's no way he still has the hunger he had coming up.
I genuinely think the only fight he can get that kind of motivation for is Fury Similar to Holyfield when he took on Mike Tyson
He choked on the ring walk. then all it took was Dubious to land a few jabs and boom classic AJ A big stiff idiot useless bodybuilding BUM. Always has been.
You can say that all day, no one cares. And unfortunately, looks like the bodybuilder scared Fury into retirement. Not a good look.
I felt that he was clearly not his normal self, he looked haggard even during the ring walk (and stumbled). He showed no skills movement, sure Dubois' pressure was a factor but I don't think it explains everything.
Inconsistency is a real trait. Mentally falling apart is a real trait. Consistent elite performance against various styles and attributes is a mark of greatness.
Yes it was the real Joshua that turned up,Joshua was going in with Dubois who already had history with him due to the well known sparring story and who is a legit puncher and was also coming off two impressive wins whilst Joshua had been on a run of rebuilding fights after the two Usyk losses. Dubois came out for the ring walk oozing confidence and loving the moment,on the other had Joshua had that same Ruiz 1 look about him as if he would rather have been somewhere else.
AJ was 34 and on a four fight winning streak according to many showing the best form of his life Harsh reality is AJ can’t deal with such a hard hitting pressure fighter and when he gets hit has poor powers of recovery Dubois wrecks any version of AJ
For me, Bruno would have wrecked AJ. The only time I ever saw Bruno look mentally weak was Tyson 2, and Lord knows that demons the poor man had in his head by that point. AJ v Bruno looks very like AJ v Dubois for me. Bad day at the office written all over it!!