Joshua is 10 years younger than Povetkin and both of them when prime fought in different eras. He had no control over the timing of their fight As soon as Povetkin became mandatory challenger , Joshua took the fight. As for Pulev , he had the fight mandated by the IBF a few years ago but decided to withdraw. Again , not Joshua's fault.
Joshua could have fought Povetkin MUCH sooner but chose Breazeale, Molina and Takam instead. Are you telling me Povetkin wasn't more deserving? Also Povetkin was still very good at at 35-36. Joshua wanted from him to be 39. Same thing for Pulev, why not him instead of Breazeale and Molina? A training injury caused Pulev to withdraw. Takam was the sub in. Joshua can fight anyone he wants, where ever he wants. No one without a belt would say no to a large payday and a chance at the title if he's healthy.
In the end, unless a guy makes himself the #1 contender, he doesn't have anything to cry about. Unless I missed it, Povetkin was never that. Joshua's responsibility to Poketkin was 0. His responsibility to Pulev was and is 0.
Takam was a replacement for Pulev and served as a mandatory. After that he fought Parker , a title holder. Immediately after Parker he honored his mandatory against Povetkin. This was all done within 22 fights , 4 yers after turning pro.. Joshua would've had to fight Povetkin when he was 10-0 to please you.
Povetkin was ranked #2 by Ring Magazine in their annual ratings in 2015, meaning he was a two choice for any champion next. He was also #4 by Ring magazine annual rankings in 2017, behind Fury, Joshua and Wilder in 2017. Since none of the champions wanted to fight each other, he was a top option! Who was picked by Fury, Wilder and Joshua from 2015-2016? Yep, I thought so. What we found out is Joshua is vulnerable to medium punching swarmers. See Povetkin, who he waited to fight when he was 39 years old a fight where Joshua was in some trouble, shaken up, and suffered a broken nose. See a fat Ruiz jr who sparked him. Ruiz jr was in his prime. Povetkin a few years earlier could have beaten Joshua. Pulev has a pretty good jab and is far more skilled than Molina and Breazeale. Those two were meatball title defenses, and Takam, who was a sub was two months away from being 37. I see a pattern of Joshua wanting to guys to age as a champion, using his age and their older age in his favor in terms of when to make a match and picking fat / slow non-top ten guys for title defenses, passing over more qualified and dangerous ranked fighters. People he should blow out that won't test his late fight stamina. Having said that, I do think Joshua at least fights the top ten opponents, like Parker. Too bad that fight sucked as both men sort of withdrew from the action. I also see him fighting too many old names past their prime, that he most certainly could have fought sooner if he wanted to. Like I said he needs to fight the winner of Fury vs Wilder.
Unless I missed it, Povetkin was never that. Joshua's responsibility to Poketkin was 0. His responsibility to Pulev was and is 0.
You're a hater. Why didn't you mention the year 2016? Because Povetkin was dropped out of the rankings after testing positive TWICE. It was on Povetkin to climb back up the rankings , which he did , and as soon as he became mando , Joshua took the fight. Povetkin was not a viable option until they fought in 2018. 2015 Klischko was still the champion. In 2016 Povetkin was out of the picture. 2017 Joshua took a huge step-up as a novice to fight Klitschko. After that he fought Parker for a belt. Povetkin got his shot relatively quick after being ousted from he rankings. And when Joshua fought Povekin , he beat him clean with pure boxing , not an illegal tactic was needed.
Get the mandatory out of the way then earn some serious money. I'm interested how good the Tottenham stadium will be for boxing.
In 25 fights AJ will have fought Wlad Povetkin Parker Whyte Ruiz Takam Martin Breazeale And Pulev Yes Wlad, Povetkin, and Pulev were or will be 41, 39 and 39 y/o respectively and were/are way past their best but they were/are still 3 of the best HWs in the world and IIRC all rightfully ranked highly by The Ring at the time. That just illustrates how poor the current HW division is. And let's not forget that both Fury's and Bootleg D's best wins were 38 y/0 when they beat them. In fact, Ortiz was a couple of weeks shy of his 39th birthday in the first Bootleg D fight and Wlad was a four months away from his 39th birthday when Fury fought him. To be fair to Fury he beat a closer to prime Wlad in his backyard albeit still way past his best and he should have a win over Bootleg D in his backyard too and AJ and Bootleg D have been fighting at home with the deck stacked in their favour. But AJ has a better resume than both, especially Bootleg D whose resume is absolutely hideous, in just 24 fights and at least he fought Fat Andy over in the US. Edit: I've just checked and Pulev is not ranked in the Ring Magazine's top 10. I'm not sure how that works when they have OAP Ortiz ranked at #5 and he has a worse resume than Pulev and is coming off a KO loss and is 0-2 against Bootleg D, both losses obviously via KO. Pulev has only lost once, to Wlad and Wlad>>both Bootleg D and Ortiz put together.
Exactly. It's ridiculous. The winner of Wilder-Fury II will likely be fighting AGAIN before Joshua fights for the first time this year. This will likely be the only fight Joshua has this year. What a waste.
It took Wilder 6 months to rematch Oritz after he had spent a whopping 2 minutes in the ring against Breazzele.
