Anthony Oluwafemi Olaseni Joshua vs. Jarrell Arlington Miller

Joshua farks him up something fearful.

Miller has had success due to his size mainly, stylistically he's got nothing for AJ and he's not explosive enough to catch him with something big. Miller is tough though and he's going to need it in the beating he's going to take. I don't even think he's bigger than AJ once you strip the flab away and compare muscle mass to muscle mass.

Miller's only - and I mean only - hope is to turn the fight into an ugly wrestling match where he tries to potshot then hold and make AJ push his mass around for 12 rounds. Hopefully AJ starts to gas late and then he turns up the flame for a late stoppage. I can't see him beating AJ otherwise.

 

Not a reach at all, that Takam stoppage was dire. He was still firing back in that round and Joshua was starting to look plenty tired himself. That barrage it was stopped on had a single clean shot land, it was really bad.

The Povetkin scores were bad, it's absolutely favourable judging. The same as Wilder got against Ortiz (Ortiz should have been up). My point wasn't that fighting AJ in the UK is worse in terms of bias than fighting Wilder in the US, it's that they're both going to be poor.

Edit: forgot how wide the Parker scorecards were too.

 

I take your point but the other side to the Takam stoppage is the volume of big punches he'd already taken to the head. That's something UK judges look on a little differently to US ones I think. Still, you're right about AJ tiring and sometime around I think the previous round there was perhaps a sign that he wouldn't be having everything his own way. Incidentally, Bellew being ahead of Usyk on the cards was questionable as well. Don't think the fix was neccesarily in, but it was as you say favourable judging.

All of which however whilst deplorable for any fair minded fan, would just reinforce the argument against AJ fighting in a Haymon controlled environment. They know just what A side advantage means and it would be stupid to give it up if they don't need to.

 

They certainly do, though they like to jump in much quicker against the away fighter than the home. Not that this is unusual but I do dislike how a lot of Brits decry officiating across the globe but seem ignorant to how poor it is here in the UK too. Bellew being up is another good example. Even Paulie on comms had to castigate the commentary team for giving Bellew rounds "for just doing OK".

But yes, ultimately this is going to be a huge hurdle when arranging the fight. The obvious caveat to this ought to be the strikingly low possibility that the fight even goes the distance