I'm intrigued as to what you believe was "Improved" about Wilder? His power looked much much weaker. Something we couldn't really access against Parker and Zhang, because he never threw, let alone land. Against Chisora he landed more than those fights, but nowhere near enough considering Chisora was a punching bag for 12 rounds. And when he did land, which was rarely, Chisora despite being exhausted after 2 rounds, wasn't too badly affected at all. You could argue, if you using your logic with Joshua tonight, he "Improved" also. He reacted far better to being hurt than usual, and he quickly shook it off and tried to do the right thing. Plenty of holding, pushing his opponent in the face, not just trying to box his way out of trouble like he usually does....That was the most "Confident" Joshua has looked to getting hurt, since Klitschko hurt him. But again, you then need to take into context the ability of the opponent, who has no pedigree to suggest he's anywhere near this kind of level, but on the other hand he was 20 fights, 20 victories and 20 KOs all before tonight. Unfortunately for Wilder, he spent his entire Career, when the likes of Fury and Joshua were in the "Prime", hiding in the US. He avoided Klitschko too, took on Parker and Zhang when they were past their primes. Wilder was the WBC belt holder for 5 years, and never fought Joshua, Klitschko, Usyk, Parker, Dubois, Hrgovic, Povetkin, Whyte, Pulev, Chisora, Kabayel, Sanchez, Ajagba, Zhang, Makhmudov, Miller etc etc....That's a disgrace to the belt and the WBC should be ashamed. He only fought Fury because the WBC believed he was finished.
Both are shot to bits, both have looked so much slower, both have lost punch resistance. My main concern with Wilder is that I suspect hes lost his power and AJ hasn't.
I've always thought Wilder is a nightmare match up for AJ.. Between the power, speed, heart, and awkwardness of his punches... Just think it's easy to see him getting around AJ's so-so and often lackadaisical defense, and as others have mentioned - it only takes one. I think they're both completely shot, so all is equal and I still think the fight would go the same as I always did... Wilder by KO, and he may get dinged up in the process.
Wilder outpointed Chisora. That's a significant improvement considering most of the forum only ever gave him a KO or nothing chance against most of opponents over the course of his career. AJ on the other hand, almost got blasted out in the first round by an opponent worse than Mahkmudov.
If you're even going to attempt to argue that AJ has improved given his performance tonight I can't take you seriously.
It’s Glass vs Glass. Low Ring IQ vs Low Ring IQ. I’d favor Joshua as I think Wilder is completely done and AJ still has savage power.
Deontay Wilder always beats Anthony Joshua Not because he's better than him but because styles make fights Joshua has almost no head movement and a 6/10 chin. You're not beating Deontay Wilder with that combo
Wilder has been shot to bits for a while now but he still has a chin. Joshua doesn't and that's what makes me think Wilder would beat him.
It would be a good fun fight. But somehow Wilder is positioned for a lineal title shot. So Wilder v AJ ain't happening for a bit. Maybe that ends up the final fight for both of them.
This is still such an edge of your seat matchup. Absolutely crazy this fight still may not happen. As for who wins I think its 50/50. Way too hard to call for me. Wilder has the edge in some areas, AJ the edge in others. I can see Wilder getting through with one of his bombs and that being all she wrote. I can see AJ managing to survive, find his feet again and then land his own bombs that stop Wilder. Its a fascinating fight that will be a shame if it doesn't happen. All I can hope for is AJ manages to beat Fury and then that sets up a great matchup with Wilder.
Even if AJ loses and makes a decent account of himself, no reason why he can't go for Wilder anyway. Unless Usyk literally kills him in the ring, I think Wilder would be up for it.
Haha. Boxing fans are such a funny bunch. You could do some research on us to prove how unstable our perspectives can be. AJ got knocked out twice, so now anyone with a pulse is beating him, and Wilder would have killed him. I just want to remind you that style makes a fight, and that Wilder, facing such a hard-hitting opponent, probably wouldn't "go wild in the ring" throwing a flurry of punches. He'd rather just shut up and, excuse me, do ****... Just like in the Parker fight, where he tried to land something maybe once a round, but focused entirely on not getting hit too hard. I'll also add that Joshua, no matter how weak he seems to people now, punches like a truck, and we saw how Wilder reacted to power at the highest level in the Zhang fight (one punch and the guy doesn't know where he is either). So before you write anyone off, think twice. As a reminder, it took Dubois, an extreme puncher, several rounds to finish off the injured AJ, and just before the fight ended, he himself was visibly damaged. The pendulums, not the fans.
I think he still has enough to do some damage. I remember a zhang quote saying that he felt it but didnt get landed on clean enough for it to have much effect and considering how much chisora was backing up and struggled to stay in the pocket with wilder makes me believe he could do some damage, although im aware that could also be a sign of how washed chisora is.
The question would be if Joshua would be down for it? Especially if he got knocked out by Tyson Fury In that scenario Anthony Joshua would have a lot more to lose than Deontay Wilder