Joshua still remains a bit of an enigma to me, if he opened up more, took some risks like he did against Wlad he might have had a lot more success. I go along with the theory that the Wlad and Ruiz fights did something to him mentally. He also looked terrified of getting hit during the Ruiz rematch. all in all he has been a decent fighter though, I’d agree with others that the hype Hearn has pushed on him has had a bad effect but guess it was always going to happen. Without all that he would be seen as a decent fighter that came up short, but many are saying he’s done etc because of expectations, especially those of the mainstream. I think he has a few exciting fights left, it’s just a shame he seems to have lost that vicious streak he had earlier in his career.
Guys that consistently pursue tough fights will end up with loses on their record. Look at Chisora! You’d think he was a journeyman at face value.
Think it says a lot about the sport today that we feel the need to praise them for this. First time reading your comment I was thinking "I never usually disagree with your opinions but on this one yes I do think Joshua deserves credit for getting in there with Usyk, other fighters would probably have dropped the belt rather than fight him". Then I realised I've just been a boxing fan too long that that stuff has become normalised, all the ducking and belt dropping etc, and yeah - couldn't agree with your post more mate
Way more heart? Based on what? He looked wild-eyed terrified in the closing rounds of the Fury rematch and ended up meekly capitulating in the corner till the ref stepped in. Joshua was at least firing back combinations at Ruiz and got stopped by a ref who didn't like his body language. But Joshua's the one who gets neverending stick for 'quitting'. Why? Both fighters have showed plenty of heart, but Joshua's done it against top level opponents and punchers like Wlad, Povetkin and Whyte. The only time Wilder did something similar was against Ortiz. He showed zero drive against Fury by about the fifth onwards.
Always have, despite his globohomo poster status. Only caveats were that he allowed Hearn to negotiate him out of a Wilder fight with ******ed demands and that he'd never beat Tyson Fury even at the hundredth time of asking.
Wilder had much more fight left him against Fury than Joshua did against Ruiz. Breland did the right thing, but there's no question Wilder was going to go out on his shield. To be clear, I'm not criticizing Joshua for lack of heart. I think he's also a brave fighter, just maybe not the blood and guts warrior type. And that's okay.
I doubt any Sky or DAZN pundits will be blowing smoke up AJ's arse from this point onwards, if anything, they won't be able to jump ship quick enough as us humies are fickle beings at the best of times. I should imagine that from now on, AJ will be given far less chance or favourable odds against most the top 10 given that he's definately lost 'something'. It could end up being the fire he needs setting beneath him to get back some of that spite and killer instinct he showed against Whyte. I don't want to see a humble, respectful AJ, I want to see him angry, riled and properly peeved so that we see him back to the seek and destroy AJ of old, I just doubt it's there anymore. Maybe some warranted criticism will sting him into action.....
No he didn't. He was backpedalling constantly at that point and had no more snap or venom on his shots. He was dog tired and looked like he just wanted it all to be over.
Joshua's resume isn't all that. Its good, that's why he's a top fighter, but it's not much better than Wilder's. I also factor losses when comparing fighters, and Joshua has now lost to a last minute replacement, and a cruiserweight.
Whyte at that stage was only marginally better than a game Molina. Whyte's come on leaps and bounds since then and still looks **** too so I don't really rate that win too much.
