After watching Joshua's fight against Povetkin and the initial problems he had against a shorter, swarmer type fighter; how would Joshua have coped against a prime version of Mike Tyson and Joe Frazier respectively?
Mike Tyson has the best chance to defeat Joshua...its why he has ALWAYS been my top choice and the Povetkin fight showed why. The actual fight? Joshua would need competent sparring partners to simulate Tyson ( he didn't have them for Povetkin) ,its plausible that Joshua defeats Tyson but I still give the edge to Tyson right now but we don't know how Joshua would adapt to shorter guys if he kept fighting them. Tyson has the big advantage here bc he was always fighting tall guys. however he has not fought a tall 250 power puncher and who can fight on the inside . Tyson and Joshua are incredibly difficult to get a win off of that's a FACT and a proven one with both guys as Tyson himself went undefeated under Rooney and Joshua has yet to lose. Each has strengths and weakness,Tysons lazy inside clich could also give Joshua a major advantage as well? I consider both very all around near perfect fighting machines but Joshua is at 22 fights ,while he defeat 99% of the rest ,my moneys on Tyson . Joshua vs Frazier would be an easy fight for Joshua bc Frazier doesnot have Povetkins chin and is far easier to hit. At 5'11 and 205 ? Its not really hard to break this down bc theres not much to break down...Joshua ends Frazier easier then Foreman did.
Both are massively smaller in height, reach and weight. Tyson never beat someone with that size, power and heart. I reckon Joshua sparks them both out tbh.
He would done far better vs Frazier than Tyson, AJ always has his right glove up protecting him from the hook, his lead glove is held a lot further from his chin, so he is open to right hands, Povetkin only landed a few hooks in this fight compared to the right hands that did all the damage, against Wlad, AJ was decked by the right hand but after he rose Wlad threw 6 hooks and missed all of them even though AJ was on rubbery legs. Frazier was more or less a one handed fighter that was blind in one eye, he would threw a lot of hooks and they came upwards making them hard to read but he was more aggressive than Povetkin was last night meaning he was open to counters, AJ is good at landing fast counters, but he had problems with Povetkins hands being high and his chin being tucked in threatening to counter every shot, I feel Pov is more powerful than Frazier was but not Tyson, who would catch AJ early with the right hand, Tyson was more creative offensively than Povetkin was last night and would have opened AJ up, AJ got his nose busted and said these shorter guys like coming up threw the middle, well Tyson was much better at that than Frazier, he threw far more uppercuts and they were devastating, I don`t Joe could of taken AJ`s power but Mike took Ruddock`s best punches and Smith`s at the end of their clinch fest.
You mean if Joshua actually fought a PRIME good HW?? It would end similar to this... This content is protected
Tyson`s used his height to his advantage fighting from a crouch made it hard for bigger guys to punch down and hit him with anything hard, since Tyson was punching upwards his punches came with more force, plus AJ would panic seeing Tyson coming at him with speed, Tyson was quicker than AJ.
He was a green amateur here, he`s come on leaps and bounds since the olympics and even agreed that when he first turned pro that Povetkin would have beaten him last night, McCraken has trained AJ well.
Joshua's too easy to get inside on. A Prime Joe Frazier a much better inside fighter than Povetkin and had a better left hook. Takam and Povetkin were able to get inside on Joshua and neither man were half the fighter Frazier was in his prime. A prime Tyson tears Joshua up from the midrange, since Joshua doesn't punch well from all angles like Buster Douglas or like Lennox Lewis. Tyson's head movement would leave Joshua hitting air. Against post FOC Frazier Joshua has a much better chance, since Frazier wasn't as well conditioned anymore and easier to time, but Joshua is slow as molasses compared to Buster Mathis it even prime Foreman, so Frazier most likely decisions Joshua, but it could go either way. Post 95 Tyson also would've had trouble with Joshua, since his skills and conditioning were in the toilet at this point, but he still had one punch power and would most likely be able to exploit the very green Joshua, but like post FOC Frazier it could go either way.
Against average competition that worked fine, against Joshua he's facing a different beast whatsover.
In his prime my money would be on Tyson to rip his head off. Tyson was very fast and elusive to hit in his prime days.....AJ would end up a mess I think he would fare better against Frazier and it's possibly a 50/50 fight. AJ would need to look out for the left hook though.
I think Frazier was too small but i'd pick Tyson any day at this stage in AJ's career. The Povetkin fight offers insight into the theory, bigger doesn't always mean better. a 39 year old swarmer with a 10th of Tyson's talent was having some success in there....
Anyone who picks Joshua over Tyson is clueless. Look at what Tyson did to Bruno. Joshua at the moment isn't much better than Bruno was. Tyson would end his career.
