AJ hasn’t beat a Top 10 opponent in years

If you say so

 

Almost as if it's a deliberate tactic to try and bait Fury into growing the stones to make the domestic superfight... I doubt he will, though.

 

Some great points.

I'd be and I'd expect the boxing community to be quite disappointed if he doesn't fight a top 10 guy in his next fight.

 

Having read your post I have two questions I'd like you to answer:

You say that Steve Cunningham was a small HW and not a CW when he dropped Fury. Why?

You say that Joshua has two B2B losses to a CW and not a small HW in Usyk. Why?

 

It's quite simple why a lot of people have Joshua ahead of Fury right now and it concerns his last two opponents and the manner in which he dispatched them compared to Fury. Why that's laughable to you I can't quite fathom. Maybe you find humour in odd places, or are easily amused. I don't know.

You're looking at that the wrong way. Sure, if you assess his last four performances it was Franklin that gave him the trickiest nut to crack, but prior to each of the four fights it was Ngannou who many people were saying was going to be Joshua's stiffest test. That he was actually his easiest opponent in years shouldn't detract from the narrative that many, mostly anti-Joshua, posters on here were spinning up, as well as many neutral and even pro-Joshua ones, due to how much Ngannou had shown up Fury in his last fight.

You mention Whyte as one of the top heavies in your estimation. As I'm sure you're aware Joshua was scheduled to fight Whyte until he decided to indulge in his favourite pastime of failing another drugs test. So the idea that Joshua's team only tried to put him in with easily beatable opponents to get his confidence back looks shaky on those grounds, as well as the fact that a large segment of the boxing world prior to the Ngannou fight thought that Ngannou would very well be the end of Joshua.

Agreed. I think Hrgovic or a Parker rematch would be a good yardstick.

Eh, it sort of does. Your most recent performance is almost always used as a primary gauge in how you'd do going forward, however unfair that might be. Look how many people are now writing off Wilder since his loss to Parker. Those same people saying that Wilder would easily knock him out and knock out Joshua to boot. What's the state of that narrative now? What's the new one? That Wilder is shot? That Wilder has lost his edge? What if he 1st round KOs someone like Ruiz in his very next fight? Will the narrative stay the same? Of course not.

Joshua is riding high right now and deservedly so: he emphatically beat the man that battered the champ and tarnished the state of HW boxing. But to give it some legs prior to that he also beat the man that gave Fury one of his toughest fights in years, and is riding on a four fight win streak where he never had to resort to favourable judging or fouls to pull off a win. So it's natural to ponder the idea that he may be in a better state than Fury, who doesn't really have anything impressive to show for himself to balance that dreadful performance to Ngannou out.

Is he? Why's he so hesitant to fight Usyk then? Why did he run from Ngannou and then run from the press-conference afterwards? I've not seen anything in-ring or out to tell me that Fury is anywhere near the same man he was at his peak. His trash talking and mind games have fallen flat, his performances look laboured when they're not downright embarrassing, and he consistently gives off the vibes of a man terrified to lose his 0 to a man he previously called a midget, among other less-savoury, things. Moreover he simply looks like someone who doesn't want to be boxing anymore, not an anything above an exhibition level anyway.

Also, lego beard. Never a good sign.

 

Lets just ignore that he has already fought numerous guys on that list you gave!

 

He actually fought most of them. He fought young Zhang in the amateurs and KD him, and won on points. He fight young Joyce in the amateurs and KO him 1 round. He already beats Parker clean, he already beat Ruiz in the rematch 12-0. He already fought Usyk, lost twice.

He would have already fought Wilder and Fury if they weren't such a pos duckers.
I'm almost certain if Dubois keep winning AJ will fight him too. Just like i'm almost certain Hrgovic is next for AJ.

 

Looking at this thread, and i just had to go back and look at Fury and Ngannou rbr thread, and how people back then are crying, literally all of the people that are slating on AJ now, that Ngannou will surely KO AJ, how he is so strong in the clinch, how he is powerful, and the granite chin he had, that AJ is a mental midget, and Ngannou is going through him, and how good a set of skills Ngannou possess.

Same people now are slating AJ for KOing him in 2 rounds and saying Ngannou was nobody.
Same Ngannou that 99% of the people knows he beat Fury.
Hard to take this people seriously for real.

 

It's you who say that guys he struggled with and arguably even lost to in one of the cases are very beatable. So you can't have a high opinion of him.

That's just the logic to what you're saying. Assuming there is one.

 

AJ's team is guiding him carefully. I'm sure his confidence was shattered with the Ruiz loss and being comprehensively out boxed twice by Usyk. His last couple of fights were to get his mojo back. As far as rating him above Fury goes, I think it has to do with how much better AJ performed against guys Fury had big problems with.

 

AJ confidence was shot after Usyk fights, not after Ruiz fight. Everyone seems to forget that AJ took Ruiz rematch straight away and 12-0 him.
He also beat Pulev in one side beating and KO him, and Pulev has a very very solid chin, and was still in decent shape when they fought.
Also AJ was perfectly fine in both Usyk fights. He give it all, and was throwing and trying his best. There was nothing wrong with AJ.

After Usyk 2, he didn 't have the greatest of performance against Franklin, who showed a great chin, and Helenius, who was on the defense whole night. But AJ barely lost a round in both of this fights, and KO Helenius in the 7th.
Given he was with a new trainer and they did try to change his style completely, which was never going to work. They should have try to implement changes, but not to change him completely.
Still after 2 back to back defeats, he won both fights with ease. And then goes on destructive mission.
I just feel for his next opponent, who 99,99% going to be Hrgovic.

 

How many has Fury beaten?

 

Based on what? Who has he beaten?

 

Lets break this down

Fury has two good solid opponents on his record - Wilder and Wlad.

Fury's best win was against Wlad in november 2015. Fury then ducked the rematch and retired.

Since then Anthony Joshua has beaten

Whyte (KO) - A version that was not completely shot.
Martin
Breazeale
Wlad
Parker
Povetkin
Ruiz
Pulev
Helenius
Wallin (Rekt and forced corner retirement)
Ngannou (Absolute destruction)

In the last 8 years, Fury has beaten -

Sefer Seferri
Pianetta
Wilder
Swarz
Wallin (Almost TKO'd)
Whyte (lost to jermaine ****ing franklin and brutally KOd by shot povetkin)
Chisora (lol)
Ngannou (Scraped an SD decision)

So tell me how Fury deserves to be #2 more than Joshua?

Especially considering that Joshua has brutally KO'd his last 3 opponents who would probably all beat Fury's opponents since Wilder, excluding Ngannou.

 

Had a win over Breazale and had just beaten Gassiev. The fury performance should also be taken somewhat into account. Mind you I literally had him just barely making the top 10, he was in the 10th position.