Will no longer be put in Mythical Matchups with Ali, Tyson, Foreman, Lewis, Bowe, ect. Those all look like running jokes now.
I guess theres a decent amount of posters here that have to rethink the whole Dempsey Louis Schmeling Liston ect are too small to win a HW championship today lol. You can either fight well or you can fight great. No surprises here.
That is like a test where they say who does not belong in this list. Bowe.. I will say with the other ones I agree. I always thought Bowe was overrated. The guy had a trilogy with a smaller heavyweight and then to me had a very mediocre reign.
I wish we had internet in the 30s. I would have loved to dig up some archived threads where people were saying the same things about Joe Louis after he got whooped by Schmeling lol. I've never rated AJ high enough for him to beat the ATGs (I've picked him over some of the smaller ones) but he is/was one of the best heavyweights for the last 3 years. We gotta work with what we got. It's not like mythical matchups diminish anyone's legacy. Ali will always be the greatest heavyweight to me. Even if I were the HW champ. But yea, hindsight is 20/20. Let's hope he can win the rematch because boxing needs AJ. I wanna see boxing become a mainstream sport again.
This is nothing new tbh. Joshua isn't the most skilled heavyweight today. Its Tyson Fury. McCall and Rahman were 6'2 and they beat Lewis. Brewster was 6'2 and Purrity was 6'3 and they beat Wlad. But they didn't weigh 188 like Schmeling or Dempsey. These guys are much bigger. Afterall, weight classes are determined by weight, not height. Povetkin was a top 3 heavyweight for 11 consecutive years. He's 6'2. But he's also 225 lbs. And he lost to Wladimir and Joshua. Ruiz is 268 lbs with fast hands somehow. If Ruiz was 6'2 and weighed 200 lbs, he'd be murdered. Just my opinion.
The big heavies of today will have trouble with a smaller, faster, swarmer with short arms. As you can see, they can get inside the big swings and still keep their leverage and power. I have been waiting for something like this to happen.
Andy Ruiz weighed 260 pounds. Jack Dempsey weighed 190. Also Andy Ruiz is modern skilled. Dempsey was not. Dempsey would still be a tomato can if he fought today. Max Schmeling was a 190 pound guy so he would be cruiser weight tomato can. Joe Louis was 195 pounds and fought in that era where he could fight those small tomato cans. How silly are you kid? Because Andy Ruiz a 260 pound guy with modern skilled by a 6'5 240 pound less skilled heavyweight you think a 180 pound guy from 90 years ago could? Typical clueless boxing fan.
AJ has the better looking skills. The better boxing 101 skills. But Ruiz was the better fighter tonight, and this fight shows us the importance of veneer versus effectiveness. AJ was attacking at the wrong time, leaving himself exposed at the wrong time. His timing and reflexes weren’t there. His fighting spirit seemed misplaced by an eagerness to look in control, even when on the canvas, as if he was trying to preserve an image. Which to me doesn’t reflect the kind of focus you want to see in a fighter during a tough fight. This could be a Louis-Schmeling moment, where this fight propels him to another level. But honestly, if he were my cash cow, the sight of his legs spazzing for balance after one good shot would have me worried. Which other elite HW had issues with trembly legs like that? It was very Khan-esque. I don’t think his new age strength and conditioning training is helping in that regard either.
Finally seen the full fight. Joshua needs to cut back on some of that muscle and needs to pace himself better. Joshua couldn’t keep his hands up. Joshua needs to focus more on boxing drills and keeping his hands up and give lifting the weights a rest. Him not being able to keep his hands up and lack of head movement got him destroyed. He also needs to come in lighter, since 247 is too heavy for him, since he was slow as molasses. He’s faster when he around 235-240 and tends to move his head more. Ruiz on the other hand was definitely doing the 2lb dumbbell routine, since his hands weren’t coming down after the first knockdown.
But but but Joshua would Beat Louis Liston, and Ali on the same night back to back! He couldn't have lost to a mere 6 foot 2 man!
Andy Ruiz modern skills? He’s an arm puncher with quick hands for his truck driver physique and that’s it. There’s nothing he does that others haven’t done far better over the past 70+ years. Show me the examples of his modern skills? He countered an attacking Joshua who was upright and wide open winging shots after flooring Ruiz, dropped him and Joshua never recovered.It was as simple as that. Do you think counter punching was invented yesterday you gormless noob? The fact Joshua was/is one of the better heavyweights in the world and he got out landed by a bloke who was about 5 inches shorter, at an 8 inch reach disadvantage and obese says it all about the skills of the modern fighters. Plenty of others would’ve exposed AJ on his sh1tfully inept display today.
Good post. That was an embarrassing loss lol. Heavyweight division is pretty **** today. Size > Skills for most part. Fury seems to have both. I don't think Ruiz is a highly skilled fighter, he's decent. But he is a big boy. Not very tall but very big. He seems to have great speed and conditioning considering his physique. I think it's important to remember that Joshua has beaten shorter fighters like Whyte, Parker, Povetkin, Takam. His record is still a good one against smaller fighters. I'm being optimistic right now and calling that an "off" night. If he loses again, I will reconsider my stance. I don't think it's fair to judge a fighter from his worst performance. He has beaten fighters who are better than Ruiz (Wlad, Parker, Povetkin). But yea, as of now, Joshua's stock has dropped significantly. It's all up to him now.
