Anthony Joshuas Legacy

Before exile he could even drop fighters while he was on the backfoot. His power came from his speed and precision.

 

He did threaten and intimidate a couple of students once.
Real legendary stuff!!

 

The man stopped 200 plus guys who were never stopped before -Foreman, Bonavena, Liston and i believe Lyle as well. Like you said, he could knock people down off the back foot. He was by no means a light hitter as one of the posters above insinuated.

 

To me knowing what we know now the Wlad loss to Joshua looks pretty bad. Yes, Klitschko was inactive for 15 months or whatever it was at the time but it’s a loss that looks worse and worse as time goes on. Even 41 year old Klitschko should have been able to finish Joshua when he had him down and hurt.

 

AJ's best wins are a rusty 41 year old Klitschko, a 39 year old Povetkin, an untrained 285 pound Ruiz, or a young Joseph Parker who was in a bit of a slump (coming off a disputed decision over Hughie Fury). It's incredible that people are still insisting AJ has a "resume" worthy of historical consideration.

These days, with the right promoter, a fighter of modest boxing ability can be manufactured into a 'two-time unified world champion' as AJ was.
Picking up an IBF "world title" against Charles Martin put the foot in the door. A few months later Tyson Fury gave up his WBA/WBO titles in a bipolar sulk - and Hearn took advantage of the situation.

But we have known this all along, even the 'slow to grasp fans' have known it for quite some time. There's no excuse for people to still be debating it in 2024.

AJ has been an entertaining boxer. He's an honest competitor when the bell rings. But he was manufactured and moved into a 'elite world class' category that he never belonged in, it's all hype and a bunch of people in the industry attempting to piggy-back on the box-office appeal, repeating the lies and perpetuating the myth.

 

I'm watching the fight again and Dubois just sees everything coming and now I'm realizing that Joshua's offense was really built on catching a bunch of old guys with zero reflexes with huge haymakers. Every time he fought someone young with good reflexes he couldn't hit the broad side of a barnyard door with those huge obvious shots he throws. Just totally ineffective against anyone that isn't pushing 40.

 

People are being way too harsh.

Parker was not inexperienced. Parker was 24-0 and Joshua was 21-0. Parker already had a win over Ruiz. While Parker did not look great vs Hughie, that was an off night. By no means was Parker an inexperienced or green fighter. The 2018 version of Parker would easily be a top 10 ranked heavyweight today.

Joshua's win over Parker is better than any of Fury's non Wlad/Wilder wins and by a significant margin.

Povetkin was past it but still good enough to get a significant win over Whyte after losing to Joshua.

 

If Joshua can perform like he did against Dubious after 24 rounds of boxing experience against Usyk he might as well call it a day.

I can't think of a more one sided beat down by an outsider.

Stay humble, hip hip

 

These takes are getting dumber by the day.

 

Parker was not inexperienced but he was in poor form. Before the Hughie Fury fight, he looked bad against Cojanu. Before that, he had a disputed decision against Ruiz, which may or may not be a bad result. Parker's form continued in a slump until he hooked up with Andy Lee in 2021.

Joshua-Parker was a bad fight for everyone. Parker fought defensively, too much of the time - but on the occassions he stepped up and tried to make a fight, the referee pulled them apart. Ultimately that helped Joshua. I thought Parker did better than the score-cards reflected, but Joshua boxed quite well, using his reach, and deserved the decision given the circumstances they found themselves in. The fans lost out. Most people blamed Parker, or (more fairly) the referee.
It's a good win for AJ. Perhaps his best.

 

I don't think it's better than Fury's 2014 win against Chisora, or Fury's win against Whyte, all things considered.

 

Very good but not great is the best description for Joshua.

Guys like Vitali and Bowe are ranked around 25 in all time rankings, let's say between top20-30, and Joshua is a notch below them.

 

You're selling Bowe's first win over prime, undefeated Holyfield who was the lineal&undisputed 2 division champ a little short. Very few HW champs have a win over a prime ATG.

Ali for example who has the best HW resume, has one such win, George Foreman. You could throw Sonny Liston in there too, but that would be pushing it.

That win over Holyfield in one of the best HW fights ever should be enough to put Bowe on a higher tier than Joshua in all time rankings in my opinion, without getting into debate over how you feel about Hide, Donald or Golota fights.

 

If it was really necessary to rate AJ against historical heavyweight I would rate him clear below all those "1980s alphabet champs".
Witherspoon, Tubbs, Dokes, Weaver, Tucker, Thomas, Berbick, Coetzee, etc.
They all had to defeat a few prime opponents to get a belt, and rarely were given a soft first defence and never gifted a mandatory who was pushing 40 years old.

Possibly on a par with Frank Bruno. Even that's probably too high. Bruno fought more bums but his best wins are better than AJ's.

 

Beating that version of Holyfield is a bigger win than Usyk now, given Holyfield was bang on his physical prime. His wins over Evander are all time great wins and he has some decent wins.

Social media etc wasn't around then, but some of the guys on bowes record are easily comparable to Joshua's wins.

The Holyfield wins for sure put him on a higher teir than Aj and Fury too imo. Fury did beat wlad first on away soil and busted Wilders cherry, though that may not be great in hindsight. If Fury beats Usyk I may put him up with bowe. Though usyk is no spring chicken, but neither is Fury

This era sucks balls. It is entertaining due to characters and good promotion, but the fighters from the 80s and 90s were definitely more skilled

A prime Razor Ruddock would wreck havoc among the guys now imo