Joshua's decline is due to a lack of skill, not chin

AJ has always been a Glass Jawed fighter. Stop with the ridiculous excuses and rationalizations.

 

Many of them were not elite but I don't think that matters, given they seemed to be performing at or close to their best at age 36+. And most of them did not take care of themselves physically as well as Joshua did (Chisora, Helenius, Browne etc.)

Sanders never had a stoppage of any note past something like 2.5 rounds, stamina was never his strong suit. He demolished Wlad in 205 seconds and Wlad ducked a rematch. There was no confidence that it was a lucky win, the problem was mainly or largely stylistic.

In the cases of fighters like Zhang, Ortiz and Povetkin, they were very high level operators. I don't like prime AJ's chances against a 36 year old Povetkin, Ortiz or a 39 year old Zhang.

Lewis, Vitali, Wlad and Usyk were all elite at 36+, and these are probably four of the five best HW's this century. Despite his terrible lifestyle problems which are well-documented, Fury gave Usyk a good fight in the rematch at 36. Wilder was on the cusp of 36 when he took Fury to the brink in their third fight. Holyfield was past his best at 37, but he was still a very good HW. Foreman beat Moorer at 45 and gave Holyfield a decent fight at 42, so it's quite likely he had elite capacity at 36.

So I don't think AJ being 36 is the reason for the Prenga debacle. Nor was AJ being 34 the reason for the Dubois blowout, or being 29 the reason for the Ruiz beatdown.

 

@Slyk you've always been hard on AJ..... but I agree with you here.

 

AJ.

 

I don't disagree massively with that.

What I meant was that AJ was always below Usyk's level - whether he was second/third/fourth best in the division. Ignoring the other contenders.

 

Post-Wlad, it was common consensus that there was a three-headed monster: Wilder, Fury and Joshua. Joshua had more belts, but they had been gradually collected out of the lineal champ's trash can. Who was the best between them was just a feeling. Two of those guys fought another big three member three times, the other fought neither.

After AJ lost to Ruiz, he fell behind. And he never overtook Fury after that. It's a fairly strong consensus that Fury was the best in between Wlad and Usyk.

 

If AJ has actually boxed on a regular basis, he might, potentially, have developed into being a really good fighter. Instead, he often fought just once a year, often against terrible opponents, and now he has finally been exposed.

 

Winning a world title so soon actually robbed him of being able to keep learning on the job

 

There's footage and pics of Joshua as a 15yr old high school kid running track. He's huge even back then. I'm sure 10lbs-15lbs of his current size is from weights, but otherwise I think he's naturally built like that when fit. The whole "bodybuilder" thing seems dumb and false about him; Usyk is probably more of a "bodybuilder", in terms of being a guy who used weights to put on size.

 

Let's also give Fury some more credit here -- he's a high IQ fighter who stays focused in the ring, never panics. That really, really helps.

 

Please explain how what I typed is an an excuse?

At no point do I suggest he was on the cusp on being an amazing elite fighter



I completely see how shot he is

I've never been a massive fan of him as a personality either

Using your dumb arse logic, a pro boxer doesn't need to actually have boxing matches to improve

The things you learn on here eh....

Your just a bit odd, and have a strange obsession with trying to prove to a forum AJ isn't the best ever

But literally everyone on here fully knows that anyway



The Breezele and Molina fights were an agreement between Matchroom and PBC in order to make the Martin fight

They were probably the last fights before being dethroned that he was able to try stuff out due to the level of opposition

 

AJ would have ultimately become the best heavyweight of all time if Ruiz hadn't landed that lucky punch in round 3.

 

How do you know he maximised his potential? You clearly don't know and neither do i

My point was that once you are fighting at world level and defending titles there really isn't any going back to fight learning fights

As you should know the majority of fighters only go for world titles at the right moment

My point was that on his 17th fight that might not have been the best time to do so

Keep using the fan boy argument all you want as it don't wash with me as I'm not fussed about AJ one way or the other but I'll look at things objectively unlike you

90 percent of your posting history is regarding AJ
I'd say your more in to him than even his biggest fans