IF AJ beat Rico...

But Rico is a much better boxer with higher ring IQ than Ngannou. Ngannou has zero head movement, footwork or balance.

Rico's actually got decent feet, stamina and feints.

 

Remember the whole idea of beating Ngannou was to make AJ look better than Fury without fighting him. And to follow up on the Wallin win. AJ's fought Usyk twice and lost. Beating Rico easily doesn't serve that purpose. The guy Rico embarassed beat AJ twice. AJ isn't circumventing anyone by beating Rico. People will either say Rico v Usyk is a fluke or Usyk is old now and the outcome doesn't matter. AJ doesn't benefit.

Only someone Usyk hasn't fought has something to really gain here. If a Frank Sanchez knocks out Rico in 30 seconds now there's momentum for him getting a title shot. Usyk might give AJ a 3rd title shot if AJ beats Rico but that's because he loves rematches not because it makes sense.

 

Watch it back, perhaps with sound off. Usyk was controlling the entire fight, even in round 9 during Joshua's "big moment", Usyk was slipping and blocking nearly every shot. Referencing the judges cards is useless. The only reason there was "everything to play for" is because they tried, and failed, to rob Usyk.

I can see 9-3. 8-4 is generous to Joshua. 10-2 is completely reasonable.

The point is, it is absolutely, unequivocally NOT a great performance. Losing wide to a smaller fighter is what it is; you lost wide to a smaller fighter. For Joshua fanboys to point to this loss as an example of a fighter who would've been a menace historically is absurd, though completely unsurprising.

 

Usyk’s team is training AJ, and Usyk himself appears involved if you watch their training vids. They won’t fight each other again other than in a friendly spar.

 

And thus it's pointless. But that would be the idea of anyone fighting Rico. "The champ almost lost to the kickboxer and this other fighter who hasn't gotten a shot beat him easily, maybe he's the best HW, he should get a shot". That's not something that will work for or matters to AJ.

 

A lot of greats would lose 8-4 or worse to Usyk, so maybe it was a great performance. He could have easily done worse than in fight 1, greats are supposed to come back stronger and he did.

Joshua is an athletic SHW with decent skills and big power, so ofc he is a threat. There is no guarentee that younger versions of Wlad and Povetkin beat him, even if one favours one or both of them.

 

Sure it's near Fury especially if you take the view that Wilder is no better than his actual resume suggests.

Young, Quarry, Bobick, Clark, Cobb, etc is very good by today's standards

If there had been 4 sanctioning bodies in Norton's day he would probably have wins over 7 or 8 ranked opponents maybe more

 

It wouldn't even be an if..................AJ would melt Verhoeven. So would any of the larger punchers at HW. Usyk is not a puncher at HW.............period. He's a an elite boxer/puncher but he's not gonna just ice someone. Anyone coming out of a different discipline is gonna last rounds against someone who isn't a puncher

 

Usyk knocked out Dubios twice (the same Dubios that ate AJs best shot) and put Fury on bambi legs (arguably, he should have been stopped). The idea he isn't a big puncher is a myth.

 

If he were a big puncher he'd have dropped joshua with how many times he landed flush

 

He was still adjusting to the weight when he was fighting AJ imo. He clearly hits much harder now, though that's come at a price (speed).

 

Nah he was 34 and weighed a healthy 220+. Dubois has been dropped a dozen times throughout his whole career, his chin is not that good and in addition to that he quit. He wasn't out cold

 

Getting dropped and getting stopped are two very different things. Outside of a busted eye with Joyce, nobody else managed it. I don't rate Dubios very highly at all, but he has shown he can take power shots from the likes of Hrgovic and AJ.

And yes, he was around 220 but was still getting used to it and not really sitting down on his punches. If Usyk was to face AJ today he'd spark him out in about 3-4 rounds.

 

Dubois quit. He got up immediately and walked without any sign of wobbly legs. Usyk is not a puncher, he never has been. Fury got dropped and put on Bambi legs against feather fisted Steve Cunningham. Chins do not get better as you age unless you put on a gargantuan amount of mass. Usyk didn't drop Fury in the second fight, does that mean Usyk was hitting harder in the first fight ? No, the power did not change at all

Hrgovic is not a big puncher either. And you don't have to have an iron chin to take joshuas best punches, Franklin got smoked by Itauma but joshua couldn't put a dent in that guy. Usyk is just levels above the competition. I will die on this hill, if you beat up joshua for 24 rounds but can't drop him even once you are excluded from the power punchers club.

You think Rico is top 5, he isn't even close