His win over Ruiz Jr (who is far from some great fighter) came in December of 2019. - Beat a past it Pulev at the end of 2020. - Back to back losses to Usyk in 2021 and 2022 - no shame there. - Wins over Franklin, Helenius and Wallin - none of whom are top heavyweights. - Beats Nnganou, loses to Dubois and beats Jake Paul. Joshua's team has bent over backwards to avoid any top guys post Usyk except Dubois. Now i don't think AJ himself would duck fighters. But his team has been petrified of top heavyweights since he lost to Usyk. Guys like Zhang, Hrgovic, even a Parker rematch, Kabayel etc. were/are available and yet AJ's team desperately avoided them. Its a waste of legacy. Even 2 or 3 top 10 wins post Usyk would enhance Joshua's historical standing massively.
Ruiz was 284 lbs and had barely trained for that rematch. Not AJ's fault but it is very doubtful whether Ruiz was a top HW that night. Buster Douglas wasn't either when he fought Holyfield, a stone heavier than he was vs Tyson. It may be the case that the last top HW AJ beat was 39 year old Povetkin in 2018, himself a few years past it. That will be 8+ or 8.5+ years ago by the time of AJ's next fight.
Crazy, isn't it? Yet Joshua has himself consistently been regarded as a top 5 heavyweight in the world despite having done nothing to earn that.
It's actually crazy how long it has been since AJ, Fury and Wilder beat a Top 10 contender ranked by The Ring Magazine. Joshua has a win over Wallin from December 2023, who was ranked as a contender number 10. Before that, it was Ruiz in December 2019. Fury's last Top 10 win is Dillian Whyte from April 2022. Ranked as contender number 4. Wilder's last win over a Top 10 contender was Luis Ortiz in November 2019. Ranked as contender number 5.
Joshua's team, and AJ himself, do not care about legacy. They only care about money. And they know Joshua can still draw big even when fighting bums like Prenga
Pulev was in the top ten. Wallin also, even TBRB had him in their top five. Even someone like Franklin was in the 15/20. All those were solid victories.
