Anthony Joshua is lucky that he fights in this modern era

I’ll start this off by making it clear that I am an Anthony Joshua fan. While he isn't the most skilled or dynamic heavyweight out there, I (for the most part) like his personality and his work ethic. However, after watching his performance this past weekend, I found myself scratching my head and wondering, “how is this guy a two-time heavyweight champion?” On Saturday Joshua looked extremely limited. He had no lateral movement, and rarely took any angles. He only threw one to two punches at a time, and never really used any feints to set up his combinations. He also chose to back up in a straight line every time Franklin pressed forward, which is extremely dangerous and something that his coaches should have corrected when he was still an amateur. He did show us that he still has a great jab, and he threw some great uppercuts as well – which he needs to throw more of.



Even after all that, the most glaring problem that I saw was that he was too... calm. He lacked aggression the whole fight, and whenever he clinched, I swear I saw fear in his eyes. I think that Andy Ruiz did permanent damage to Anthony Joshuas mental state, and if that gluttonous bruiser accomplishes nothing else in his career, at least he will be able to look back and say not only was I champ, but I derailed Anthony Joshuas career. And the bigger point of all this is, Joshua could never have survived in any other era of Boxing. He never would have made it in the early part of the previous decade, and he would have been a punching bag for the top heavyweights of the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. The only era I could see him faring ok in is the early to mid 2000s, when the Klitschko brothers reigned.



I really do wish Anthony Joshua luck in this last stage of his career, and I will be continuing to root for him going forward. But I think that he has to bless his lucky stars that he currently competes when he does, and that he was able to accomplish as much as he has.



~ Connor

 

LOL. ok, maybe he would be ok against these guys...