27 year old Daniel Dubois vs 27 yo Anthony Joshua?

After the Wlad fight, AJ was never the same. He took some big shots and came back fighting.

As Teddy Atlas says, a fighter loses a little piece of himself after every tough fight.

AJ was never able to exhibit the same recovery and tenacity he show'd in that Wlad fight.

That was a tough fight. I think it took something out of Joshua.

 

Dubois already battered a younger Joshua in sparring when Joshua was about this age. Joshua is definitely a big and powerful boxer and a world class athlete but he's not the most versatile.

A big reason why he won the rematch with Ruiz is that Ruiz was in no shape to be fighting the second time around not because he adapted so well. Looking back was Ruiz really ever that great as well?

Big punchers with fast hands and are able to get off first will normally stop him but they need these attributes at the highest level.

 

Joshua fought a much different fight the second time around with Ruiz.

He stuck and moved and boxed rather than trying to bang.

AJ impressed me that night because I didn't think he could change his style to pure boxing like that.

Granted, Ruiz coming in a pound less than a cement mixer helped AJ look like a bigger Sugar Ray Leonard.

 

Yeah he boxed different but he would have folded if Ruiz came in in shape.

 

Been so long since AJ was on top I even forgot people used to call him Juicy J haha

 

Man, this is like Sansa's art of war. You gotta meet your opponent when you at your best and they probably be at their best but the smart part is they so young they don't understand the art of war yet. You gotta think these things out and AJ failed to do that.

 

Joshua is massively overrated. Went life and death with Whyte and Klit aged 27. No reason to think Dubois wouldn't KO him all the same.

He wasn't past his prime against Dubois. He's just not as good as Dubois.

 

Joshua realised in the rematch with Ruiz that he was fighting a 5'11 fatty who he could jab to death and that's all he needed to do.

A tall puncher like Dubois is kryptonite to him because there's no hiding behind the jab.

 

I'm picking Dubois
Think Aj looked scared and there must be something to the sparring stories

 

Why? He normally talks bollocks

 

Life and death with Whyte?

Dont be daft, other than round 2 it was like AJ vs a stubborn punch bag

 

Joshua looked good beating cans and going life and death with a retiring, inactive old guy who was coming off a loss and had been sparked several times already

 

very true

 

Whyte had Joshua doing his patented zombie shuffle for 2 or 3 rounds after landing a hook on him. He let him off because he didn't have the gas tank to finish him.

My point is Joshua couldn't deal with punchers at any stage in his career. I dont think any version of Joshua beats Dubois.

 

Yeah I agree about him dealing with punches to a degree but once he shook Whytes blow off, normal service was resumed

That was a domination other than that small spell

Eddie Hearn made Whyte a rich man with that one punch, and a punch that didn't even knock a man out