Is Joshua-Fury still an intriguing fight as nobody is sure who has declined worse at this stage?

Agree with this I think that it will be a very entertaining fight and there is a good chance that both guys get dropped could even be multiple knockdowns. The reason I still favor Fury is no matter how bad a condition he appears to be in he will never stay down. I think it will be a knock down drag out fight for as long as it lasts before Fury finally stops AJ.

 

Roughly paraphrasing the great Kostya Tszyu after he finished Judah, when asked if it was his hardest punch:
"I have much more powerful punches in my repertoire. Timing and placement, timing and placement!"

 

No one has necessarily said as much here but there’s often that contingent who claim no interest and that they won’t watch.

The fact that they post such sentiments belies their claim of a total lack of interest.

Of course, the angles that make this fight still somewhat interesting are much different to the angles that would’ve existed in a prime vs prime match up.

There’s not a lot that I am expressly “above” watching and this fight is definitely not going to be precluded by me - but no, I wouldn’t pay for it - so I hope it is on Netflix.

As to wondering “which” Fury turns up on the night - that question speaks for itself.

You simply cop to the Fury that materially presents on the night - as you do with most other fighters without applying extensive,
after the fact, “woulda, shoulda, coulda” treatment that seems to be afforded to Fury more than any other current fighter. Tyson is what he has been, not what he hasn’t been.

If AJ happens to beat Fury, there will be some Fury fans who will then heavily accent on how it would’ve gone down in Fury’s favour had they fought in their primes.

The fact is they never fought in their primes so there is no proof of how it would’ve gone either way.

 

If Fury’s wit is on point, as it has been at times in the past, that will be worth something in its own right during the lead up to the fight.

Can Fury get inside AJ’s head? Maybe but that might be due more to AJ’s mental fragility than Tyson’s employment of hopeful, psychological warfare.

 

In all honesty that would probably go both ways... Understandably, but nonetheless irrelevant really given that this doesn't really tell us much of anything about how that would've gone down in their primes.

Exactly.


I think the other thing that might get downplayed a bit is the referee dynamics - Joshua is one of very, very few fighters who's been at least an equal in terms of draw... And that opens up questions about whether Fury will get preferential treatment as he occasionally has (almost anyone else would've been stopped for the cuts against Wallin, for a start). That might even extend to clinches getting broken up early (as they should, really, but rarely are).

In their primes, you can realistically make even more of this - it would most likely have been interesting and probably not without controversy... But we'll never know, because it didn't happen.

 

I hear you and don’t fully disagree but from my readings, there are some Fury fans who are far more prone to apologetics when it comes to Tyson’s less desired fight complexions and outcomes…and Tyson himself reached for more than a few excuses following his first loss to Usyk.

And definitely, while this match up might still be compelling in its own ways, it would’ve been far more so had they met at their best.

As a comparative example perhaps, Leonard - Duran 3 was a far cry from The Brawl In Montreal when Ray and Roberto were at their absolute best - though perhaps arguable that Ray erred in his tactics first time around.

 

We agree on a lot of things, but I don't think that take is reasonable. Wilder is clearly shot, but he took some absolute bombs in that fight, kept his composure and still outboxed Chisora who, up until that fight, had a rather impressive run himself.

"He was so shot it just didn't matter" just feels like an excuse to discredit Wilder for what was a solid win. If Wilder losses? Ah he was never any good anyway... If he wins? Nah must be because the other guy is shot.

Hell even if we do accept the premise that Chisora was more shot than Wilder was, that version of Chisora knocks AJ clean out in the first round.

 

Hahaha what skillset is this ?

The reality is that AJ is a big athlete who got into boxing late and got by off having natural gifts in spite of not being very technically sound

Just like Wilder..


I'm sick of this whole snobby pretentious attitude from Anthony Joshua fans

You'd think it would stop after Joshua got dropped twice in the first round by Prenga and was losing rounds to JAKE PAUL

But still Anthony Joshua fans continue to be delusional

Anthony Joshua is more like Deontay Wilder than he is like Tyson Fury

This whole great skillset nonsense has to stop


And I don't want to hear about him being an Olympic Gold Medalist cause that was fake

He should've lost in the first round (and in the final)

 

he definitely got into Wlad, Wilder and Whytes head

 

Laughable take

 

I can already see Eddie Hearn saying that

 

It's sad watching an Aj Fury fight being promoted as something to anticipate. These two are washed up media creations at this point.

 

I'm sure we'll all be watching if and when it happens.

Although I would have sooner seen it several years ago when both were at their best, it is still an intriguing matchup. There will be lots of drama.