Anthony Joshua vs Vitali Klitschko

Joshua would have a meltdown during staredown trying to act tough, Vitali wouldn't even blink...

 

Aj gets smashed

 

Hmm,,,I don't know. My first thought was Vitali but Joshua has a good jab and he might control distance with it and he can pop with the straight right.

 

AJ struggled against a well past his prime Wlad....how do you think it plays out?

 

I don’t see how AJ would win this one. Asides from Fury and Usyk, Vitali for me would walk through any heavyweight active today including AJ. I see this fight ending in a mid to late stoppage (by accumulation). AJ is far too static and not durable enough to avoid being hurt by the cumulative power of Vitali. Vitali on the other hand would be able to take Joshua’s power imo and would not be fazed in the slightest.

 

Vitali gets heavily overrated for what he actually did.

A relatively green 19-fights at pro Joshua struggled but beat an old but motivated Wlad - by far the better brother of the two.

For context, a just-about prime Vitali went 50-50 with shot Lewis, and was correctly stopped (TKO6).

As far as battles with ATG's go, a greener Joshua did a bit better against a less shot version of a slightly lesser fighter... Not necessarily the easiest to balance out, but roughly equivalent in my view.

Vitali had a great chin, but less power than his brother - in that sense a Joshua KO is probably unlikely, but so is a Vitali KO...

So who wins on points?

 

41 year old Vlad was less shot than 38 year old unified champ Lennox? LOL

Joshua fans are insane. I also love the point they try to push about how the 41 year old shot to **** Vlad who looked twice as slow was somehow better than the 39 year old champion version of himself. He miraculously got BETTER from age 39 to 41.

Also Andy Ruiz slapped Joshua up and knocked him down 4 times leading him to quit, but Vitali with the highest KO% in history can only win on points.

Ban

 

Age doesn't come into it in every case - Lewis was ruined, Wlad was heavily declined but still way past prime.

Talk to the average Fury/Wilder fan and they'll tell you that Wilder's shot at 38 but Ortiz was a legit contender at 38.

I'm not a Joshua fan, but Ruiz didn't knock Joshua out... Nor did Wlad, and he hit harder than Vitali.

That quit shows questionable grit/desire - but a poor chin is not something Joshua should really be accused of.

Realistically, yes, this would go the distance 9/10 IMHO.

 

Vitali boxes him up for 6-7 rounds then gets the stoppage after landing a big one on a worn down joshua.

 

Sometimes you run into a matchup where, based on styles/temperaments/intangibles, the much faster & harder punching and far more athletic guy is simply, in a word, doomed. (see Barrera vs. Hamed)

 

Joshua is not Danny Williams and Vitali was made to quit against Byrd.

And ironically, Vitali deserves some of the blame for giving Wlad the worst advice ever against Joshua!

 

Vitali is not Wlad: nowhere near the speed, co-ordination or power, very different skills and attributes. The best SHW Vitali beat was Sprott-victim Timo Hoffmann and we didn't see how he'd do in the 2nd half vs Lewis.

 

This is basically AJ vs Hrgovic. Cant wait for that result!

 

Vitali inside 5 rounds.

Too tough, strong and technical for AJ. This would be pretty one-sided, AJ isn't anywhere near the level of Vitali and neither is Hrgovic.

Vitali is not going down from AJ, whereas AJ being hit by Vitali? I think we know what would happen.