Prime Anthony Joshua vs Prime Chris Byrd

Byrd, joshuas h2h ability is overrated. Fact is he looked bad against Frankling because of his defense, got schooled by Erislandy Savon. Joshua has never beaten a skilled smaller heavyweight besides old ass Povetkin and aj was arguably getting outboxed until Povetkin gassed.

 

The poll promoting Wlad's place as a top 5 heavyweight ever

 

Anthony Joshua from around the Martin-Povetkin fight wins, Byrd doesn’t have the kryptonite to make Joshua capitulate.
Joshua has decent straight punches, the counter right against the southpaw and decent combinations when the opponent is on the ropes and Byrd would end up on the ropes.
Joshua gets uncomfortable when you get him on the backfoot and rough him up, hurt him etc, that’s when he capitulates.

 

Who has he beaten as defensively sound as Byrd in close quarters ? Byrd could box and handle Golota, McCline, Tua and Vitali on the ropes just fine. Joshua isn't in his own tier compared to them, Moorer got killed by Tua on the ropes. We've never seen aj against a Chris Byrd anolog

 

Joshua is better equipped to deal with Byrd than Vitali Klitschko, quick, sharp straight punches and excellent punch selection when the opponent is against the ropes.

Yes he’s capitulated against much lesser fighters than Vitali, but that doesn’t mean he can’t be better equipped against other guys than Vitali. The context of his capitulations matter a lot, and they weren’t against Byrd types, Dubois and Ruiz went at him and made it rough physically.

Yes there was Usyk, but he actually didn’t capitulate there, he just got outboxed, and that’s because it was Usyk who is one of the greatest of all time H2H at heavyweight.

Usyk was willing to step in and take risks and pull the trigger, whereas Byrd would stand off too much and eat straight punches. Joshua actually landed some decent counter rights on Usyk, if you’re boxing with Joshua and give him more time and space, that’s when he’s at his best.

 

Close fight in my opinion, AJ's footwork, speed and power are not easy to neutralize even for a southpaw fighter with an elusive defense like Byrd. But at the same time Joshua would have had difficulty hitting Byrd and this would have frustrated him over time, bringing out his emotional fragility seen with Ruiz and Usyk. Then the good timing and speed of the American would have completed the work in the second part of the fight. I say Byrd by close but unanimous decision.

 

Joshua is not good enough to handle Byrd, we saw the difficulties Joshua had against Povetkin, he barely managed to knock him out when he could no longer keep his guard, Byrd has proven himself against fighters bigger than him, so Byrd on points...

 

Joshua only destroys bums and old men on the ropes, Usyk was right there and just threw two punches each time before they got slipped and he clinched. Too stiff and fundamental to tee off on Byrd. He forced McCline to fight at a high pace because of his defense, aj would gas out missing 92% of his shots

 

Anthony systematically broke Povetkin down round after round. Povetkin performed well , as I predicted he would in the lead up , but he was taking nothing out of Joshua. As in nothing meaningful to pay dividends down the line.
Povetkin on the other hand was finishing every round weaker and slower.
So yeah , AJ after multiple rounds of surgically chipping away at him , saw weakness and went in for the kill with pin- point accurate combos which forced the corner to storm the ring to save Povetkin form getting savagely KO'd.

More importantly AJ outside of Usyk has destroyed southpaws. Byrd couldn't beat Golota who was 10 years past his prime.

Plus you need power to stop Joshua advances. Byrd neither has the legs nor the power to deter Joshua.
Byrd gets ran through. Same as he did against Ibeauchi.

 

I’m going to give Chris Byrd a shot at winning a decision here. It’s not something I’d bet money on but I think he just might pull it off.

 

If you were forced to down money you would look at the Ibeauchi fight , the two fight he had with Wlad and realize he has no chance.
All Wlad did was stand outside his arm length and blast him with power shots ,which Joshua is more than capable of doing as well.
But Joshua was also very good in close which Wlad wasn't , so that makes him dangerous in more ways than W.Klitschko was.

 

Wladimir in his prime would get aj out of there in 6 rounds

 

Ya but you've got an unhinged hatred for Joshua pal. In your eyes he's no better than David Price lol.

For me younger Wlad vs AJ is 50/50. But this is about flat footed , feather fisted , puffed up light heavy Byrd. He gets blasted into oblivion by Joshua.
Even Wilder would beat Byrd because of the range. Byrd said that , not me.

 

And the overrating of Chris Byrd continues.