Lets say you can place that Anthony Joshua vs the Daniel Dubois that beat him last year How would the fight go
As a powerful puncher, Dubois always had a good chance of winning against AJ, but in my opinion, Joshua fought well below his optimal level in that fight. I don't know why – perhaps he was overcome by the stress of stepping into the ring against someone who could seriously damage him, or perhaps he was too focused on this whole gladiator thing, or perhaps it was something else. In any case, he looked strange right from the start. He was stiff, reacted slowly, and was nonchalant about his defense. This caused him to land a very powerful punch quite quickly, which really wasn't a surprising strike and should have been easily avoided. After that, it was a fight for survival, so there's no point in judging. I think an optimal Joshua, with a bit more luck and focus, would have been able to win such a fight. But as I mentioned, you can't take away from Daniel's dangerous style and arsenal. However, I'd bet on AJ with a bit more caution. Overall, it's interesting to see how their fight would have turned out after that late slump, with AJ favoring him, if he hadn't caught fire and rushed for the finish. Dubois was slowing down a bit, and it's possible he would have eased off a bit after that incident, and who knows, maybe Joshua would have started to dominate. But that's history now, and we can only speculate. The fact is, if Joshua is actually considering fighting Paul, it means he's out of serious boxing, because he doesn't really believe it himself.
Agreed 100%. Joshua wasn't himself that night, he committed basic mistakes that a champion of his caliber shouldn't have done. He looked strange even during the ring walk, stumbling at one occasion.
They said the same thing for the Ruiz fight ! "joshua wasn't himself and looked concussed" joshua is just not as good as you believed, everyone said he looked amazing against Wallin and then swtiched up when Dubois knocked him out. Dubois is just a bad matchup
I think every fight between Dubois and AJ would be 50/50, whoever lands the big shot first wins. Both heavy hitters, both have suspect mental recovery to hits.
I think the Ruiz situation was different because he was caught with a very good shot in the ear. Against Dubois he fought amateurishly (and of course Dubois deserves credit for his pressure).
Prime Joshua was knocking out bums and old men. Apart from Dillian Whyte, he did not knock out anyone who wasn't old or useless. His win against Wallin is actually one of his best stoppages and that was only 9 months before Dubois beat him.
AJ's combination-punching went away against big punchers after Ruiz sparked him out. Wembley AJ wasn't as skilled as he was against Dubois but he was more confident in himself and willing to stand his ground and let his hands go even against big punchers like Wladimir. It's a very even fight, maybe I could back Dubois by a bit because his jab would give him a greater control over the exchanges and range, but for the most part it's a 50/50 slugfest.
Fighting a 41 year old who hasn't fought at all in 17 months and hasn't won a fight in 2 years .... is vety different to fighting a 27 year old who registered his two best career wins within the last 9 months.
His reluctance to execute the rematch clause against Dubois tells you all you need to know... Seeing Eddie switch from praising Usyk in a post-fight interview to then stating Joshua was ready to fight Jake Paul really captured how far he has fallen off. Not even at the same table.
