Beside Canelo of course, because even if you win it 9-3 or 8-4, you will end up losing 118-110, but i digress. And NO, this ain't a troll thread, but a very detailed and well summarized ones. So let me argue: The quite obvious ones: - you need to beat him twice, but had to be convincingly, otherwise you are screwed. And all he does need is to be competitive. And while you need to beat him twice, he just need to beat you 1 time, and the page is closed. - judges/referee obviously. Usyk clearly won the fight 9-3, yet one of the judges had it 115-113, which obviously mean if Joshua was to just show in 1 round, he would have a draw on that scorecard. Povetkin scorecards before the stoppage was b.c. I don't agree with Klitschko scorecards as well. As well as Ruiz 1. One of the judges had Joshua winning by 57-56 before the stoppage. Also if he commits any fouls on the ring, there won't be caleld, aka penalized or so. While the fight with Usyk was quite clear, there was a lot of situation, where Usyk was pressing, and Jushua extend the lead hand and holding behind the head, which is not allowed in boxing. He also trying to hit Usyk while holding, and get few words from the referee, but nothing more. Guess what will be in the second fight. - venue - always a place that will favor him hugely. - unlike most pretenders calls him on here, he is actually a elite caliber fighter. Have a very solid defensive/offensive arsenal, and unlike what people on here are saying(obviously hating for whatever reason), his high guard is very hard to be passed. He also is tremendous power puncher with insane amount of explosiveness and speed. His footwork and cardio improved quite a lot in the past few years. And what people don't understand on here, cause they don't have a basic knowledge, when you throw with full speed/power punches with such explosiveness level of Joshua caliber and throws a lot of combination, obviously you going to empty your gas tank quite fast. It's one thing to throw arm punches and do it for 12 rounds, and completely different the ones i example. - His chin. There is nothing wrong with it. He get hit quite flush by Wlad Klitschko, and the KD was a superb right hand, that would have KO almost all of the HW. Yet Joshua gets back up, and win that fight. Don't want to heard excuses abut Klitschko age. This is a different topic i will explain later. Povetkin caught him with huge hooks, and Joshua manage to stay on his feet. Whyte caught him with a huge Counter left hook, that is his most powerful weapon, and caught AJ when he was pressing, which always hurt the most. Joshua was shaken, but managed to recover quite fast, and comeback with huge punches from him side. The same punch that KO Chisora out, and Chisora is iron chinned guy. Usyk actually land quite a lot of heavy left hands, some rock Joshua, but he managed to stay on his feet till the end. In the last 4 round Joshua took a lot of punishment and he still managed to finish on his feet. If his Chin was bad, Usyk would have KO him, no doubt. The only case you may have is Ruiz, but the guy landed a perfect counter hook to the temple that obviously cause a concussion, and he was gone after that punch. - unlike what other think on here, his boxing ability and ring IQ are very solid. Again there is level to this, and Usyk > AJ obviously, but that doesn't mean Joshua is not highly skilled. If you closely look at his matches, his feints are very good, and he knows how to open a guy very well. Just look at Povetkin fight for example. He was waiting for counters, and start hitting the body, and thats how he set him up for the power punches. Same thing he done with Pulev. And this is 2 highly skilled amateur fighters as well. They have quite a lot of amateur matches. - people loves to slams some of his opposition, as they were old, yet Fury and Wilder started their career 5 years earlier, and they never even wanted to fight guys like Pulev, Povetkin, Whyte, Parker, Takam, Ruiz and quite other fighters that were in the division and were in their prime or close to it. Again there is a 5 year gap between Joshua and Fury/Wilder in terms of pro debut. - this is counterproductive to the latter, but it's true. All on his opposition was quite aged - W.Klitschko, Povetkin, Pulev, and even Usyk, who is not in his prime for sure. And when you have a rematch clause, he knew they will be even older, which will be the case with Usyk. And while this is a knock on him, we got to admit that he faced the best Parker, Whyte and Ruiz. I actually think both Whyte and Parker for whatever reason didn't improve and/or are even worst since. You can say the same for Ruiz. For me and this is my opinion, Joshua will beat both Fury and Wilder, and won't be a hard competitive match. Boxing is all about style, and Joshua had what it takes to KO both of them. Saying all this i want to slam him a bit more with the ridiculous rematches clauses. I'm really pissed about them. It's not fair at all to have a rematch clause, only if he loses, and not double sided. Also rematch clause should not be allowed AT ALL for mandatory. They force their opponents to sign the rematch clauses, it's obvious. Also rematch clauses should only be allowed at all(and again not for mandatories) if the guy is a champion for at least 5 years or have at least 5 defenses.
Maybe you should read the post ? And yeah obviously when you fight top and hungry opposition somewhere down the road you will end up losing. Probably more than once, depends on the given day and the opposition. Main reason why a lot of top dogs in the HW in MMA has more than then few loses - they fight top opposition.
You can't expect a well detailed and argument post with 2 sentence right? If that is the capacity of what you wanna read, then bad for you.
I appreciate the effort but I didn't find a great deal to agree with in there. I also think that all of this means bog all if he gets taxed again next time around. Predictions about Wilder and Fury are all well and good, but once he's been mullered by a former cruiserweight back-to-back, the right questions are about Whyte II, Ruiz III, Hunter I.
I most definitely agree with that. But there is a few factors that need to be taken into the consideration, like the venue, the big time juice Joshua is going on to be, the british h........ referee on the ring, and as well as the three judges that will have filled 5-0 for Joshua pre-fight. All fouling for AJ will be allowed, and probably the first series of combination punches he decide to throw, even tho all or most of them blocked, the referee may jump in british style and made an premature early stoppage, on fully fit Usyk.
To be fair Joshua can do better and make it more competitive the problem being as I see the issue being a mental one and without new imput and pulling out of his surroundings were everyone says yes a blows smoke up his arse he will not improve in time.
You can say that if Fury and or Wilder manage to beat Usyk. But just as i state, they just don't want to fight the top opposition.
I stopped reading when it said Dillian Whyte hadn't improved since the AJ fight Now i am no Whyte fan but that's complete bollocks
You've taken time and effort in your post and I've read it all. I don't personally agree with most of it. Unless I'm missing something here, I'm genuinely curious as to your criteria above?. What's the reasoning on that?
AJ has deficiencies in the chin, gas tank, heart and confidence departments, so even with all of his A-side privileges he's obviously not the hardest man to beat in boxing or even close to it. 41 year old, 17 months inactive, dethroned, away from home Wlad outboxed him, dropped him heavily, had him out on his feet for numerous rounds and came within an inch of winning, Ruiz took his best shots, beat him up, made him gas out, dropped him 4 times and made him quit, Usyk schooled him 9-3/10-2 and battered him in the last two rounds in his backyard. Is Ruiz any better or more dangerous than Sanders, Brewster, Peter, Ibragimov, T. Thompson, Chagaev, Haye, Arreola, Chisora or Povetkin? I would say no on all counts, so it's unlikely that AJ would have gone undefeated for long in the Klitschko era. Against stronger and more dangerous opponents like Wilder, Fury and Usyk, AJ's chances are considerably worse. Even Dave Allen was fancying his chances after the Ruiz fight: "he's very beatable". What applied to Allen applied to a far greater degree for a litany of more serious contenders.
AJ looks on paper better than he is Povetkin is old has retired Pulev is old should retire Wlad was at his oldest then retired and almost sparko'd him Takam is old and not champion level, ref prematurely stopped it Joe Parker lacks tenacity & fighting spirit Andy Ruiz Jr beat him then lost a rematch for clear reasons in a dull bout Whyte, Martin, Brezeale, Molina, recycled knocking over material. All of these men stand right in front of him. Usyk doesn't have to stand in front of him will pick him apart time and time again. Same with Fury. Fury or Wilder could stand in front of AJ and come out on top just fighting him on raw ability & guts.
