Current Joseph Parker vs prime anthony joshua

I would say 2018 was the year AJ hit his peak - beat 2 top contenders who wanted to fight him.

 

I'm not sure what prime means when it comes to Joshua because he never really evolved if you look at his boxing ability or boxing IQ. His punch resistance has gotten worse but his body isn't shot.

Joshua kept Parker at the end of his reach quite easily and I don't think Parker has progressed enough to turn around a 12-0 scorecard from the first fight.

 

People say a lot of stuff here that's wrong. Gotta take most things fans claim here with a grain of salt. An athlete's prime has always been about his physical peak. But newbies here made it to be when they think a boxer was boxing at his best. They can be concurrent, but that's not the hard rule.

 

Parker was very scared to engage in their fight. Any time hands were thrown it looked like Joshua could have knocked him out, the ref saved Parker in my eyes by not letting them trade up close.

 

I guess the issue I'm highlighting is that AJs prime appears to be an ever moving goalpost. After his Ngannou fight we all heard how AJ was a different beast and now in his prime, now it was between the Wlad and Ruiz fight? Seems like a very short prime

 

Not so much prime AJ. But I think the AJ version from both of the Usyk fights would be the least favourable for Joe.

AJ's strategy for Usyk in those particular fights was the absolute wrong one.. considering it was Usyk he was fighting.... But, AJ's actual boxing performance all round was very decent. ( Not including the mental breakdown after the 2nd fight!)

But those versions and style of AJ against Joe Parker ( who I'm a big fan of btw) would be more testing for Parker than their original fight.

 

It was. After some time passed, we can clearly see AJ was never the same after Ruiz and some of us (incudling me) bought into the "new AJ" stuff after Wallin and Ngannou (more Wallin than Ngannou in my case and really good showing in the Usyk rematch). But we'll never know, maybe he did rebuilt himself, only that DDD was just that much better and stronger than him, which we'll see in his next fight. Getting back to the point, yes, his prime was very short 2016-18 and I think that version beats today's Parker rather easy. But that's just an opinion, we don't have anything to verify it. Maybe we'll see the current version square off.

 

Parker is the same guy just slower.

He danced around an ancient Zhang (who Kabayel put on gas & air) he also danced around a washed Wilder (who Zhang chinned with ease) and beat Bakole on 24 hours notice with zero training camp...the weird Parker hype online is driving me insane.

 

Prime Parker lost to Dillian Whyte & Joe Joyce.

 

Wait, so how do we define prime? Is it the fighter from when they were at their best in an actual fight, or is it a hypothetical prime for the best they could have been?

Because I'd say Joshua's prime is 2018 when he beat Parker and Povetkin. And the Parker of today would do way better against that Joshua than the Parker then did. He is way stronger and more versatile.

He would have a way better game plan to land his offense and would know when to stand and trade verse when to stay out of range. His ability to apply smart pressure is multitudes better, and he has more power to back it up as well.