AJ still won very wide which was a clowning compared to the first fight. your just trying to use semantics and not give credit where it's due. Andy didn't help himself but that's entirely down to him. You have to give credit for firstly reaching immediately and secondly making those adjustments and getting a definite win.
I'd say he dominated him - which isn't any less of a compliment. I have Fury vs Schwarz as a clowning.
Joshua just needs to make it more competitive. If he still loses the fight but it looks vaguely competitive then he'll get the decision. The first fight's scorecards prove this. Going off those it seems like a close fight but in reality he was taught a lesson. If Usyk was younger and fresher it would've been a shutout.
I just said dominated even worse, not far more dominant. The rounds Usyk won were even more one sided than i remember and Joshua won 1 less round on second watch
OP is right. AJ showed decent skills and was outboxed in a high-level match. I’m far from convinced that he would have done any better by blundering in sloppily and trying to blast Usyk out. He tried to box as well as he could. The skills AJ showed vs Usyk were leagues ahead of the shambolic Fury v Wilder fight. I’m not saying he would beat them, I’m just crediting him with a higher standard of boxing in those particular fights.
The Sanchez comparison is a good one, IMO. Though Frank is certainly a big bigger (I think he's close to 240 lbs) than Usyk and slightly rangier than Usyk. He's "Paker-sized". It's going to be tough for Sanchez to get opportunities though because: a) He's a threat to decision most any fighter b) Some of his fights have been a bit boring. I wouldn't say he has a "negative" style - but he's given a couple of opponents (e.g. Christian Hammer) a bit too much respect. So not very fan-friendly. c) He doesn't have the pedigree that Usyk was able to build before entering the HW division. A dangerous fighter who is not a draw is going to struggle to get big opportunities.
I wouldn't call spending all 12 rounds reluctant to engage with an obese, untrained 6'0 285 lb burrito "clowning". While it's not Joshua's fault that Ruiz is an undisciplined lazy ****, he hardly deserves glowing praise for beating that fat tub of lard: any top 25 heavyweight would have breezed past that version of Ruiz. Even shot to pieces Chris Arreola was able to knock him down, Joshua was scared to even try in the rematch. Joshua didn't clown Ruiz, he simply did the bare minimum and survived him.
Yes. That's not the right thing to do with Usyk. He's like a marthoner who can run negative splits. After 6 or 7 rounds Usyk is 95% and his opponent is 80% and fading...Gotta take advantage of (the few) opportunties you get while you are getting any at all. Usyk is the best deep-water CW/HW fighter in a long, long time.
The bare minimum is just scraping a win on a narrow points victory. Also I'm hardly giving AJ "Glowing praise" I'm just not crapping on it like the rest of you. Also the version who fought Arreola was clearly a far worse version so that's a false equivalence in itself.
