Peak Anthony Joshua Versus Peak Joe Frazier

Great as Frazier was, he ended up way too vulnerable to Foreman’s uppercuts. Know who happens to have an excellent right uppercut with big power? Anthony Joshua.

prime Joshua is a serious problem for anyone who has ever shown any remote kind of chin vulnerability.

 

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I know it's going to be popular to hate on Joshua at the moment with the way his career is going ATM now that he's in a major slump.

But let's be realistic a prime Joshua is a giant compared to Frazier.

6'6, 250 pounds, 82 inches.

Vs

5'11, 205 pounds, 73 inches.

Now I'm not saying size is everything and I'm the one who normally argues against that. For people saying the Heavyweights are too big now for every past Heavyweight.

But I can't think of many fights in history between two very world class fighters. Where a fighter has overcome such a disadvantage in all those attributes.

Frazier has also never really met any big punching KO artists apart from Foreman. So Frazier is a bit of an unknown quantity against real big imposing punches.

Now I do think Frazier could land his left hook on Joshua and put him in serious trouble see the Ruiz fight.

But I also think Joshua's size and power would be a major threat to Frazier aswell. Especially with the uppercuts which Joshua is good at, and that's a perfect weapon against a shorter bob and weave fighter.

No real prediction here because I think Frazier is a bit of an unknown quantity against big punchers as I said.

And Joshua can be hurt even against fighters who he has big height and reach advantages over aka Ruiz.

 

No way I'm picking Joshua over Frazier, whatever the advantages he holds over the smaller man.

Joe was a natural fighter, instinct alongside his killer left hook punch.
Frazier does just what Ruiz did to AJ, I'd put big money on it.

 

AJ is not the type of giant to beat Frazier imo. He has decent success due to the size difference, might even genuinely hurt Frazier at points, but he inevitably falls. He's too stiff and tends to overthink too much to beat Frazier, who's not the sort of opponent you can afford to sit back against and try to be technical. And if he thinks Usyk's head movement was bad to deal with, then Frazier's not the sort he'd like to face.

Plus, I don't trust his chin here anymore than I do Frazier's. People crap on Louis for being dropped 10 times in a 70 fight career, but AJ's been dropped 11 times in half the amount of fights, 4 of them against a guy like Andy Ruiz. If Frazier's left hook connects flush at some point, and it will connect, then AJ's on Bambi legs and goes downhill from there.

 

Won't people say Marciano would be too small for AJ ? Frazier is much closer in size to Marciano than AJ. Much closer. And they had similar styles, except Frazier was faster, but Marciano was a harder puncher, especially in the right hand. Both had similar durability. Both would have to cross dangerous territory to land on AJ.

 

Frazier would be a cruiser coming forward into a power punching super heavyweight that has a big size and strength advantage.

 

But Ruiz was still alot bigger and taller than Frazier

 

Frazier was 205–209 lbs at the height of his prowess. Marciano was 184–189. That's a significant size advantage, and size matters enormously when you're talking about dealing with elite heavyweights.

As for durability, Marciano never proved he could absorb the kind of punishment Frazier took from Ali, and it's pretty much a given he couldn't have absorbed what Foreman dished out. Frazier was also considerably faster, as you already acknowledged.

I also disagree that Marciano was the harder puncher. I'd take Frazier's left hook over Rocky's right hand, honestly. Marciano was probably the better two-handed puncher, but I'm struggling to see what other advantages he has here. So yes, it's quite easy to see why Frazier would fair better against modern heavyweights. It's not as simple as, "Frazier was closer in size to Marciano than AJ, therefore Marciano has roughly the same chance against AJ that Frazier would." Ali was much closer in size to Frazier than he is to many modern heavyweights, yet unlike Frazier, he's generally favored against them.

 

AJ has the better physical dimension's but Frazier has the style specifically designed to attack those dimensions.
Joshua has looked good when controlling fights but Frazier won't allow him to dictate the rhythm . Joe would make him work EVERY SECOND.
By rounds 7-10 , Joe could potentially turn the fight into a brutal test of conditioning.
Joshua for me has a very slight window of opportunity, the early rounds.Thats his chance to hurt Joe, that's when he could be vulnerable to heavy shots.
But if Joe's still there after the first few rounds, then AJ best prepare himself for an absolute war!

 

Frazier would just run into a 250 pound power puncher good at throwing uppercuts

 

I used 205 since that's his FOTC weight. But 189 is much closer to 209 than 209 is to 240, 250, 260. 5'10 is much closer to 5'11 than 6'5 or 6'6.

Marciano absorbed brutal punishment from Charles and Walcott who were similar punchers to Ali. And I'd wager that Walcott had the edge in 1 punch power. Frazier couldn't handle what Foreman dished out, that's why he was bounced up and down and stopped.

Ali had a different style and better chin and longer reach and was more of Usyks size and so we know that a guy Ali's size thereabout can handle super heavies. The only 5'10-5'11 swarming type fighter safe to favor over AJ is Mike Tyson and he had a relatively iron chin and was a muscular 220 pounds and proved he could take on big punching super heavyweight fighters.

Frazier and Marciano were similar physical specimen. I'd give them similar chances against AJ

 

Joshua hits harder than most of the men Frazier fought , can't deny that.
If he catches him clean, early on especially, then Frazier could be stopped.
But.. that's also the gamble that AJ has to take . Frazier isn't going to stand upright in front of him, just waiting to be hit.
He's going to make Joshua hit a moving target while simultaneously being forced back.
Joe is the smaller man but he's no weedy featherweight, he's strong enough to get in there physically too.Then whilst AJ is starting to get hit with those killer left hook s,it won't actually matter much how big Joshua is.

 

Sure but it's not like AJ won't land anything until round 7. Frazier is going to eat uppercuts left, right and center trying to get close enough to land his hook. You can make similar arguments for Marciano against AJ. Comes in low in a crouch, AJ has an early chance to get him out, when it get to rounds 7-10 it becomes a brutal war of attrition. Marciano would make him work every second. The body punches would wear AJ down if AJ can't get him out of there.

But all of those arguments fly out the window if talking about Marciano.