Look, congratulations AJ. This was a hell of a win against a rival at this stage in his development. This guy is going to be a champ considering that he will have four titles to choose from. But lets not get carried away one way or the other. Dillon Whyte is a limited but powerful guy. Stopping him does not mean that he is a future ATG, and the fact that he got a bit rocked does not mean that he is chinny. Either thing might prove to be true, but we don't know yet. In my book, Joshua takes the lead back from Parker as best propsect, perhaps even moves into contender status. Congrats again.
I kind of agree. I don't agree with the people treating him like a God now and I don't agree with the people who think he is a bum either. To me this performance was almost exactly what I was expecting, I guess I underestimated Whyte's chin but I expected Joshua to get wobbled at some point but didn't fully expect Whyte to have it in him to finish the job against Joshua, but I don't rate Whyte as that great beyond punch power and a great chin. I was expecting a Joshua win and I'm a bit annoyed that I am being called a Joshua hater when in other threads I said I expected him to win because I could see solid improvements and they (and his weaknesses) showed pretty much as I expected. Now where I get called a Joshua hater.... I agree Joshua is more proven and deserves ultimately to be rated as a better proven fighter than Parker but if this fight went this way then I will feel like Parker probably has the edge in current potential. I understand that isn't proven and none of us have crystal ***** but Joshua hadn't been tested like this before and it went how I thought it may so I feel like I have read their strengths and weaknesses quite well. I think Whyte is not great. He is far from terrible but I don't see him as a contender - I think he is likely to be stuck being a gatekeeper to contenders like he has started showing now. I think Parker would have not necessarily cleared Whyte out faster than Joshua, if at all - but I think if Parker had fought Whyte first he would have controlled him much better and made him seem far less dangerous and people would have decided that Whyte was a bum much more than in this fight. Same goes the other way, I reckon where Whyte was not able to finish the job on Joshua in two I think Parker would have... and that's not saying I think Parker is that much better than Joshua at all, I just think Joshua leaves himself open to a fast powerful combination thrower who he can't finish off before they land some shots. I think overall in skill I feel Parker has an ever since slight edge over Joshua, and would pick a epic fight with a 53/47 type confidence of a Parker win against him right now but previously I have favoured and as they each grow and are tested in different ways I expect both my opinion and reality to change. I still feel these two guys are a couple of the most interesting guys in the division and this was a really exciting fight and good for team sport in general. I would be surprised if Joshua fights someone as dangerous as this again next, and I hope after Parker gets through his January fight he is paired up with someone who will test him in a way to justify what I feel I can see in him and shut people up who treat him like he doesn't deserve to mentioned in the same sentence as Whyte or Joshua.
I think AJ is a very talented fighter who has the possibility to go far, but a lot of my recent bashing of him is a direct reaction to the ridiculous amounts of praise that's been being heaped upon him as of late, in spite of the fact he's beaten no one but shopworn way past it fighters. I figured Whyte would show he's a mere mortal, even though I said he would KO AJ, I thought there was a legit chance in the 70/30 range and he almost did and proved AJ has flaws, had Whyte had a bigger gas tank like a Povetkin or Wilder does, AJ may have been in serious trouble. But thankfully for AJ he didn't. His chin is still a question mark, his stamina is still a question mark, and while Whyte proved to be far tougher than most thought he'd be, he is a limited fighter with far less natural talent and skill than Joshua and look how he tested him for 2 rounds, if another fighter is capable of that for 4 6 or 8 rounds, he's going to be in real trouble.
The chin and stamina are question marks, but we have seen that there is a foundation there to build on. Whyte can hit, and Joshua may have been rocked, but he took it. He may have been half blown by the seventh, but he hung in there. He needs to improve the stamina, and improve his defense, but we have seen that he is not glass jawed and will not be blown after three. He can improve. As for the criticism because of the nut-hugging, yeah, I get that.
