Anthony Joshua names the six fighters he wants to face before he retires

It depends what segment of the boxing public you ask. For the casuals who'd bought into the unstoppable KO machine version of Joshua, yeah, him failing to knock out a tubby guy then 'running' from him in the rematch bursts their balloons somewhat. For those who only saw Joshua as a one dimensional bully who'd get exposed and that'd be the end of him, well, his reinvention into a boxer puncher is actually a welcome surprise.

For me I rate Joshua higher now than I did when he was undefeated. Part of a champion's journey is how they come back from defeat, and Joshua proved that he could learn from his mistakes, go back into the fire again and get the win. The performance wasn't scintillating, but then I don't expect fighters to put on firework displays in those situations. Now if Joshua decides to play it safe in subsequent fights where it's clear he can dominate a guy like Wlad did I'll start to become more critical of him. But that's a ways in the future.

You talk about damaged goods then mention Deontay Wilder? There's your poster boy for damaged goods right there. Joshua would take him to pieces worse than Fury, especially now that the blueprint has been laid.

Maybe that's a little premature to say, and we should probably see how both men do in their next fights before jumping to any conclusions, but the way that both men handled their defeats points to the stark contrast in class and championship mentality. Joshua said very little, complimented Ruiz and made tactical changes to win the rematch. Wilder is blaming everyone and everything but himself, and looks like he'll make no real changes to his tactics for his own rematch (but that remains to be seen).

I agree that Joshua is a bit between styles at the moment. But there's no reason he can't fuse them together, become both a boxer and a puncher when the circumstances permit. Lennox did fine with that kind of style, and Joshua shares a lot of his attributes.

 

Moron. How is it that Ruiz Jnr. was a cherry pick when Wilder, Ortizn't, Whyte and Kownacki ALL turned down career high pay days? I get you don't like AJ but at least post with a bit of balance and coherency instead of just total and utter bollocks.

 

Just have a quick stab at how much pressure would have been on AJ to win the Ruiz rematch and then put his performance into context based on that alone. Joshua was in a MUST WIN situation or else he was finished. Unlike Lewis, Joshua got beat down 4 times and humiliated on his big US debut. Coming back from that takes a rare mindset and to say otherwise just shows you have an agenda against him.

 

Joshua's the very anti-thesis of a fraud. He's fought pretty much the who's who of the HW division barring Fury and Wilder and beaten them, come back from a bad defeat and won back his belts. Frauds don't do that. Frauds hide out fighting nobodies, avoiding tough challenges and then going to pieces the first time they lose.

Your breakdowns of the fights are biased and flaky at best, and can be levelled at almost any other HW in the division if you choose to do so.

Did he buy his belt from Martin? In a manner of speaking. Martin was seen as a weak link and an easy route to a title, but the fact that he used that leverage to go on to fight Wlad and Parker makes all that somewhat irrelevant. He certainly wasn't someone who just wanted to nab a belt then sit on it. The belt was the means to an end.

Struggled with Breazeale? No he didn't. Stop talking crap. He completely outclassed Breazeale and knocked him out in seven. So what if he didn't blast him out in one round? Why didn't Wilder blast Molina out in three rounds, or Szpilka in two?

Struggled with Takam? Lots of people struggle with Takam. He's never given an easy night's work to anybody. Dodgy stoppage? Yeah I'd agree with you there, though Takam was well on his way to losing a UD. I don't think it's a point worth quibbling about.

In house ref helping him against Parker. Again somewhat agree, but that's part of having hometown advantage and being the betting favourite. Ali had plenty of fights where he was allowed to get away with excessive clinching. Mayweather elbowed. Hopkins and Ward were both allowed to foul mercilessly. None of them are seen as frauds because of it.

39 year old Povetkin was still a top fighter when Joshua fought him. A bit old? Yeah, so what?

Want to break down Wilder and Fury's resumes as well? I guarantee they won't come off looking any better.

 

I actually missed the part where he called Ruiz a cherry pick. Yeah, quite clear what his game is at the moment.

 

AJ wont get passed Usyk anyway.

 

too long didn’t read

 

How come there wasn't a contract clause for a third meeting when Joshua and Ruiz had their rematch? Especially with each now having won one fight each. If Ruiz gets into better shape I'd rather watch a third Joshua/Ruiz fight than a third Fury/ Wilder fight.

.... Probably.

 

At least Joshua will fight him, unlike one former Heavyweight 'titlist' I can't even begin to be bothered to mention.

 

Did he really though? Look, I’m a huge Lewis fan myself, but was his win against McCall really that impressive? Beating a mental wreck like McCall, who literally had a break down right there in the ring, is not really a triumphiant moment for Lewis, is it? I mean, at least Ruiz were “only” fatter for the rematch, he didn’t quit or refuse to engage.

I will give you Rahman though, that was a brutal and picture-perfect example of how to avenge your loss. Who did it better than Lewis, avenging a loss like that? Joe Louis maybe? But then again, I don’t think a fighter like Joshua suddenly becomes “irrelevant”, just because he failed duplicate what the above mentioned guys did.

 

Then don't bother quoting me.

 

It won’t actually matter the excuses when AJ wins that fight will be Usyk was to small, there’s always going to be an excuse because there always has been .........


Martin threw the fight ,it had nothing to do with AJ training hard with Otto Wallin and coming up with a bullet proof game plan for the southpaw , I actually saw the Furys begging people to put money on Martin and crazy people picking that guy to win .


Klitschko would be to experienced and was heavily favored on most sites I’ve seen , I don’t know about this one but the script flipped and he went from AJ’S grim reaper to shot and to old after his defeat .

Parker wasn’t allowed to fight inside ( he was purposely trying to clinch and hit ) and would be to fast for AJ.

Takam was stopped early ( the guy had two cuts with blood impairing his vision when the ref saw his knees buckle ) some even said he was about to put it on AJ in other forums I was on ? Lol

Povetkin was shot and old even though I had him defeating top ten Hunter in his prime and how AJ wouldn’t handle pressure fighter .

Ruiz was overweight ( most were saying how the extra weight would be to much for AJ since he couldn’t take a punch ) AJ couldn’t box but when he did was called a runner .

Get your popcorn ready he won’t get credit for Usyk either on that note Pulev will also go down as a non important win even though I know he could very well be any other guys top 3 win .

 

it was you who quoted me Einstein

 

Tbf Thor he was debating you when quoting

 

I must say, some absolute nonsense in this thread
Im not the biggest AJ fan but im no hater either
Stock diminished? Really?, well check the pay days coming his way
Stocks fine esp with the arab cash there to fall back on
And a fraud?maybe in his persona, that i can see an argument for but he fights whoever he has to
He never struggled one bit with Dominic B, in fact it was a one sided beat down
Povetkin never won every round, possibly the first 3 but things settled and then AJ took over and Sasha had no answer

People need to balance their views