Prime Joshua had a weak chin but he was an absolute monster and if you couldn’t knock him out he’d beat the **** out of you. Here is his resume: Wlad: Was dominating and beating the crap out of a motivated Wlad until he got dropped. He still dug out a tough win. Whyte: Destroyed Whyte but had a scare due to his weak chin. Povetkin: Brutally beat up Povetkin, not a prime version of Povetkin but good win. Parker: Easily out pointed the Kiwi. Ruiz 2: Easily outboxed him when using smarter tactics. Takam: Dude is tough as nails and rarely gets stopped. Pulev: Put a string of decent wins. Joshua’s downfall is definitely his extremely weak chin. That being said beating him without severely hurting him and just outpointing him being 50 pounds lighter is extremely impressive. This is like a top boxer at 126 or 130 who’s known for their skill and not power going up to 140 and schooling Amir Khan.
Let's take a look here Pulev was 39, a fossil from the Klitschko era like Povetkin, didn't beat anyone decent in the run up, Takam is a gatekeeper, Ruiz wasn't ranked when he smashed aj. I agree Povetkin was a decent win but Povetkin was how old again ? This resume isn't monster worthy. Even Riddick Bowe seemed more formidable and he only had 3 names on his record Wladimir beat himself that night, and Dubois beats any version of aj
So, summarizing, a monster with a weak chin. Would make a good children's book 'The Monster With The Weak Chin.'
He fought Fury and AJ back to back, so any criticism of Wlad against AJ surely brings Fury's win into disrepute? Or did he beat the prime version of Wlad, and AJ beat the shot version 18 months later?
Wild that you think a guy who has only been truly KO'd once has a weak chin. This dude took a shot that would have killed a horse from Klitschko and got up. Took a moonshot right on the chin from Dubois that would have stopped almost every HW. Got up and kept fighting. To become 2x Unified champ and only be unable to make a count once? Sounds like that's a pretty good chin. If AJ had a weak chin he'd have ended up like David Price.
Not a great fighter but a very good one, and I disagree that he had a weak chin. Glass jawed heavies don't last long. Joshua's chin is solid for the division, actually, it's his inability to recover from being hurt that has been more of a problem. But he fought a ton of world class guys. Made a **** pot load of money, too, and was relatively active. I'd love to have the next Joshua come up through the ranks.
AJ doesn't have a weak chin, he has a weak mentality. He's taken massive punches without getting ko'd. Usyk beat him mercilessly and Wlad put him down hard but he got up. Ruiz discombobulated him with a punch to the temple but AJ was on his feet at the end. The Dubois shot would have put anyone to sleep.
He is definitely underrated. Powerful guy good punch selection he is a confidence fighter. I don’t think his chin is as bad as people say I mean this is the heavyweight division full of guys who can hit like a Mac truck.
yeah he’s being unfairly treated here. His chin is fine. He has a recovery issue. Different issue. and actually, given how Dubois was just knocked out by Usyk, I wonder what would have happened if AJ had just kept his left hand up when he’d buzzed Dubois and threw that lead right uppercut. Because, let’s be real, AJ hits an order of magnitude harder than Usyk.
I agree with you regarding Ruiz fight. Joshua's chin passed the test because he was able to get up but mentally he did not want to continue. That's why he leant on the ropes in the corner and gave the referee no choice but to wave it off.
It's the biggest blemish on Joshua's record. Why would anyone skip over it when discussing him? Particularly in a thread proclaiming him a monster.
Yeah, it's funny how people claim AJ has a weak chin when in reality Fury's chin is much weaker. Fury gets knocked over by anyone and everyone. Luckily for Fury, he has god-tier recovery skills, which AJ doesn't. AJ's real issue is that he's a head case. He made one mistake against Ruiz in overestimating how hurt his man was. Got too close and got clipped in the worst spot to get clipped. Ruined his American debut. Totally embarrassed because people don't understand how good a HW Ruiz was and only saw him as a fat, goofy looking kid. Ever since that point AJ has been doubting his chin when he really doesn't need to and thus has become a bit gun shy. He pulled it together and put on the best performance of his career in the rematch with Usyk, but Usyk is Usyk. Once that didn't work out I think he kind of just packed it in and went on auto-pilot. He was absolutely not ready to fight Dubois. Looked like an alien who knew nothing about boxing stole his skin and took his place in the ring. And like you said, he still almost got rid of Dubois. When AJ was focused and committed he was a very, very good HW.
As good as AJ was no one actually believes he beats a Wlad who is 38 or younger. He went life and death with a 41 year old Wlad who was out of the ring for 18 months prior, thanks to Fury messing him around with a rematch he never intended on taking. AJ goes down as a belt holder in his era. But he was always one who never achieved dominance. The biggest issue with his resume is the brutal dissection that he suffered at the hands of Andy Ruiz Jr. And his inability to ever face the other two biggest contenders from his era (Fury and Wilder)