Yeah true, that's a good one, he did blitz Whyte with an uppercut.. but Whyte was gassed and done at that point, still a good shot though. Maybe I should have made my point a little clearer but.. for example Wilder Vs Ortiz, one shot out the blue and goodnight. Big punchers can do that, real big punchers... and they talk like AJ is that kind of puncher when he clearly isnt
He can definitely improve on Saturday’s performance and has been but he got it badly long against Usyk.
He can and will come again and he really has to be much bigger and nastier to have any chance of winning. But 6 months from now he could be top dog again. Unlikely but no way impossible for him to beat Usyk IMHO.
The resume thing is almost a paradox. If a fighter is truly great, he will hold the title a long time. That means he will be old and past prime when he loses it. This discredits the win for the young person who beats him. (Holmes losing to Tyson, Wlad losing to AJ and Fury, etc). If a champion loses the title when he is still young and in his prime, he is now instantly judged to have been overrated and the win isn't credible since the champion was never great to begin with. (Joshua vs Ruiz, Wilder vs Fury, etc).
Of course he's elite. If you're one of the five best in the world in your sport's division then you're clearly elite. And Joshua remains one of the five best heavyweights in the world. People forget how many heavyweight champions there have been throughout history. Only a handful of them have had lengthy reigns. Among champions, I'd say Joshua is historically about average. I'd be interested in someone doing a proper analysis of average heavyweight title reign and really see where Joshua fits in historically. Is he a top heavyweight? Yes Is he a historic great? No Will he enter the HoF? I think he is still young enough to build a HOF career. Someone regaining the heavyweight title twice would be in pretty elite company from a historical standpoint. The heavyweight division, especially the past couple of decades, has had a few really notable career salvage jobs. Lewis and Wlad lost to arguably worse opponents than Joshua did and ended up building HOF careers. It's not too late for AJ to do the same if he's willing.
The fact that Joshua was a two-time unified world champion proves that this is a pretty weak era in the heavyweight division. I like Joshua and I think the respect he shows his opponents both before and after fights is an example to others BUT he's limited as a boxer. He's certainly better than Bruno but that doesn't make him a great fighter by any means.
Bruno never held all the belts and was never known as number one. AJ was. When AJ was young and fearless he was a frightening prospect. He isn’t the fighter he used to be mentally and his weaknesses are well known at this point. He fights like a businessman these days thinking about his team rather than enjoying it and being a real fighter AJ does stay hit like Bruno. But unlike Bruno he does recover from being hit. He can also come back from being hurt, whilst Bruno never came back to win a fight when he was seriously hurt. Bruno won the WBC belt and lost it the very next fight, whilst AJ has a far better legacy in the sport than that.
Good post, Bruno was ****ed when tagged with a big shot. He wouldn't go down but would freeze like ' a rabbit in head lights'. Funny thing is though, Bruno fought well against Lewis and in the first Tyson fight. I would pick Joshua to stop Bruno mid to late but there has to be a good chance Bruno could KO him early. Joshua has a glass jaw, amazing how long it took before his chin got checked. He's a very good fighter who can't take a punch. I think Tyson and Lewis would have taken Joshua out early. Joshua is a stop gap champion.
Joshua has dealt with everyone except Usyk who is a level above most. AJ is a top fighter imo. A couple of losses doesn’t make me change my mind. Most fighters will lose at some point. Joshua learnt from the Ruiz fight and will learn from the Usyk fight. He’s still a tremendous heavyweight who can fight. If he does rematch Usyk, I see a much closer fight next time.
I see it being worse for him next time and he will be stopped as Usyk will be better as well. Once he starts throwing, he is so easy to hit, cannot take punches and Usyk knows it. Usyk has come to be the undisputed World Heavyweight Champion and only a bomb from Wilder or Tyson Luke Fury stands in his way of achieving this. The winner of Fury v Wilder facing Usyk is the fight the world wants to see next. Time for the Undisputed World Heavyweight Champion to be crowned in 2022 and hopefully it is between the current top 2 and undefeated fighters Usyk v Fury.
2 times or 3 times heavyweight champion of the world means jack**** in the modern multi belt World of boxing.
AJ only held all the belts because Hearn had the money to acquire them. When Fury retired each belt should have been won individually in the ring. With Hearns millions he was able to get them all on the line against a chap coming in off a defeat.