Who would AJ have to beat to make you...

Who would have thought Crolla would win a legitimate world strap and Mitchell wouldn't?

 

He could beat Fury and Wilder and the racists on here (Sugar 88, Primal Pledge etc) still wouldn't give him his dues as he is black.

 

It's not about board politics, it's the reality of the situation that no matter what he does, certain types of people will never give him the credit he deserves.

 

Pulev would be an impressive win outside of the usual suspects.

 

I think he's the real deal, but as said above, it's not based on evidence. He'll smash Brezeale, which isn't a good fight at all. If Parker can beat Takam and look good that would be a good win for him, because you'd presume Parker will be hungry and strong, wanting to win.

 

Haye and povetkin because they are both dangerous. But also both small which makes you think he should be beating those guys I suppose.
Klitshko?

 

He'll beat them all except maybe Fury and Wilder and Ortiz. Those are the only ones that up for debate. All you need to be is big and athletic in this era - AJ is both. He'd be too big for the rest.

 

Haye (purely because of the British and 'unknown' angles), Pulev, Povetkin, Takam/Parker or Ortiz. They're what I think of as the 'upper tier gatekeeper', i.e. they're very good but one step down from the elite at HW (Wilder & AJ by virtue of the fact they're champs, Fury & Wlad, depending on what happens in their rematch).

Hughie Fury would have been an interesting matchup but it's a waste of a fight now at this stage of their relative careers.

Stiverne would have been a better, more impressive win this time out that Breazeale but clearly not possible outside the IBF top 15 (which isn't great).

The Pulev/Chisora winner would be a good next fight. Lucas Browne would also be interesting depending on what happens with his drug test stuff.

EDIT: Rankings updated yesterday: http://www.ibfusbaregistration.com/ibfusba_02APR2014/index.php/ratings/ibf-ratings?view=rankings

'Interesting' list shall we say... Hughie Fury and David Haye inside the top 15...

 

Yup, Haye. H Fury, I still don't think this fight is a non-starter even with AJ as champ. What a run in to a Tyson Fury fight. (I am not equating to the two, just saying each signifies something quite telling if AJ fought and beat either).

Basically what Mark McBurney just said.

 

A J is just a product of his times , just lucky he's so big with limited skills and what appears to be a limited chin , , he's around at a time when theres not much good competition .. But to be considered more than a hype job , hw would have to fight and perform well against any of the following .

Haye ,, Fury . Wilder , Vlad . Ortiz ,, not needing to beat them all just perform well .

 

Difficult one to answer. Although the heavyweight divisions improved in recent years theres still only about 6 or 7 that are any good. On paper guys like martin and breazeale should be good tests but when you actually watch them its pretty clear their relatively poor.

Theres no real test out there for joshua until he takes on them six or seven names at the top of the tree.

Just to add thought neither froch or mitchell werr destined for greatness. Due to the fact thry both struggled to get out the way of punches even at domestic/euro level. Froch totally proved me wrong probably because his chin was unbelievable when you consider how many shots he took. Mitchell you could see what happened to him against katsidaz coming a mile away after watching i think it was the carl johansson fight.