Sept 25th Well this is obviously AJ stripping muscle, Andy Ruiz II style. I thought August might be too much of a push to take off that bulk.
Plenty time for Joshua to prepare then although a slick fluid southpaw style like Usyk's cannot really be prepped for easily. Joshua being a bit stiff and robotic might be tailor made for him.
End of September? So that means no chance of fight against the winner of Fury/Wilder by the end of the year?
Nope. And if I was AJ I would go the Ruiz or Whyte route after Usyk rather than waste time with Team Fury again. If they want the fight let them make it happen
I can't see how. I will assume Hearn and AJ have pulled the plug on any undisputed fight any time soon.
Yeah, I know it ain’t entirely their fault what with covid and lockdowns but these heavyweights are wasting their primes fighting only once or if fans are lucky twice a year.
TLDR: I didn't mention the Povetkin loss as I don't think getting one shotted by a top 5 heavyweight (who he then beat) is all that big a deal. And the way you phrased it would kind of be like me arguing that Joshua isn't all that because he quit against a morbidly obese opponent who had previously been beaten by Parker years earlier. So it balances out. Having said that... I understand your point, but that 40 year old was still considered by the majority of fans (from what I could tell) to be top 5 in the world. Some actually had him top 3 following the win. And to be fair to Whyte, he put things right on the return, whether Povetkin was ravaged by Covid or not. Also Whyte did drop Povetkin twice in the previous round, before he got stopped with a beautiful uppercut. But it's heavyweight boxing, you switch off and these things can happen. Just ask Ruiz...in a fight which I thought he won wide, he got dropped and given some further scares by a 40 year old who isn't even a top 50 boxer any more. But as you rightly point out, there would be curiosity in a rematch if Ruiz commits, but let's be honest... after causing one of the biggest upsets in history he turned up in a terrible state for the rematch which made it a very one sided affair. He then took a year off saying he needed a tune up before he'd be willing to fight Ortiz, and got put on shakey legs by his tune up opponent. Now compare that to how Whyte goes about his business and the calibre of opponents he regularly faces. So, whilst I acknowledge what you are saying, I don't think it changes the balance of things, and Whyte still shouldn't be dismissed as a future opponent.
That's somewhat understandable. Still that's a problem of his own teams making. He is frustratingly inactive for a unified champion. 9 months here, 1 year there, what's another 9 months for boxing fans... Whilst not directed at you, I wonder if fans will still be happy with an undisputed champion who continues along such a timetable? Actually, I think you were right the first time. There is some leeway with Covid, but Joshua just pays lip service to fighting frequently. But how he moves shows he is quite happy taking long layoffs between big money shows. For all of Wilder's short comings, at least he was active and was only holding up one belt's rankings (WBC) through his opponent selection.
The rematch with Povetkin didn't mean a thing to me. Povetkin clearly wasn't well. Don't get me wrong, Whyte is still a fairly interesting challenger. But when he came off the wins over Chisora and Parker he was the most interesting out there after Fury and maybe Usyk, but being iced by Povetkin took the shine off of that a bit. And it isn't his fault that Povetkin got hospitalised with Covid and looked a right wreck for the rematch, but it is what it is.
Yes, but by quoting one sentence you made it look like I was saying something I wasn't. For instance, I could quote the first part of your response, where you say "I do not edit comments". I could then show the previous message where you, in fact, did just that. However, the rest of your message actually adds some nuance, and context, which makes that quote much less damaging. Do you see my point? Anyway, I totally get what you meant and let's leave it at that.
Serious people don't think it's the 'fighters' doing the ducking. Fighters aren't scared of eachother. Promotions are cautious with their investment though. Matchroom probably would've rather done Ruiz 3 or Whyte 2 because this is very high risk very low reward. They'd be pretty confident AJ would beat Ruiz or Whyte but this is a very different challenge. They may also be confident but with an undisputed fight in the balance it's a big risk.
Yep fack them.fury/wilder top rank/pbc where clearly in cahoots to get one over on Hearn/dazn/matchroom and where content in wasting everyone's time and conning the fans.jokers.
