Can Aj mentally recover and put Dubois away ??? In style ??? Kinda like Lennox v Rahman 2 ?

Difference is this wasn't one game-changing punch. He got beaten up by the better man. Usually the rematch goes along similar lines.

Joshua isn't the fighter he was 5 years ago, and he had his limitations then. He stopped developing, and now he is what he is. If he sticks behind his jab, really pumps it out, stays disciplined with his punches, doesn't lose balance, perhaps has some kind of guard. All ifs. And if he was going to do all of this, he'd probably have done it for the first fight. What do you think?

 

AJ isn't Lennox, he doesn't have that ring IQ, I doubt AJ even knows what he did wrong in the first fight.

Lewis lost the Rahman fight because he again had become over confident to the point of complacency and abandoned his jab expecting to just bomb out Rahman and paid the price. In the rematch he dominated again behind his jab. Joshua isn't out jabbing Dubois.

Joshua can do better than the first fight, but then he could barely do any worse as I think his instincts now are to play it safe, he's timid when up against a threat and backing up to the ropes against Dubois is just a recipe again to get KO'ed. What Joshua needs to do vs Dubois is far more complex than just establishing a dominant jab like Lewis did vs Rahman, he has to move laterally to keep DDD in the centre, stay off the line which is an issue he has always had a problem with, force Dubois back, control the pace, prevent exchanges and stay off the damn ropes.

One thing he has to 100% not do is throw crazy uppercuts from way outside as that's what got him finally KO'ed. I get why they went to the uppercut as it's bailed Joshua out twice in tough fights against Whyte and then Wlad but those shots were thrown on the inside, where Joshua used to be very effective before Ruiz turned Joshua into a purely outside fighter. Throwing them from 4 ft away is madness unless you have a huge height and reach advantage and Dubois isn't much smaller than AJ.

 

Yeah, he probably can win the rematch.
Dubious is getting massively overrated now. He lost to Joyce because Joyce kept hitting him in the face. AJ is a lot quicker than Joyce and hits harder.
If AJ boxes more carefully and lands the first bombs he can win.
Whoever gets KO'd it's going to be funny, so let's try to not let hate get in the way and just enjoy it.
Ideally AJ KO's Dubious, gets his confidence and hopes back, then gets splattered even worse in the trilogy.

 

But it arguably was. I don´t think he recovered at all from the first round knockdown.

 

Perhaps. Nonetheless, he stayed in the fight and landed his best shot right before being knocked out. This was a comprehensive loss, not a flash in the pan. Something fundamental would need to change for Joshua to win. Otherwise, Dubois is going to land his right hand again, first round or later.

 

Even if he gets more defensively responsible Dubois UD him

 

If he dumps his useless trainer, maybe.

 

If he at least partly learns from his mistakes and is at least somewhat better prepared he might put himself in a position to be gifted a dubious decision. I just don't think the comparison to Rahman-Lewis is too valid. AJ is a very good heavyweight, but he is no Lewis. Dubois is significantly better than Rahman and I expect him to be as good or better than the first fight. I expect Dubois to stop him again but obviously AJ is always dangerous.

 

Lewis led on all 3 cards going into the 5th against Rahman.

Joshua came out with his left hand down and chin in the air and got bullied from the word go against Dubois.

Not much similarity there.

 

No, he can't. There is a big difference between being knocked out with a single punch and being battered for 5 rounds. Plus, AJ won't enjoy every possible physical and technical advantage over Dubois like Lewis did vs Rahman. Plus Dubois is better offensively than Rahman ever dreamed of. Rahman's offense consisted of jab and right hand, while Dubois is a combination puncher that throws all type of punches - jabs, hooks, straight right hand, uppercuts, body punches, putting them in the combinations. Plus Lennox Lewis was much better defensively than any version of AJ. Better punch anticipation, better reflexes, better movement, millions times better at clinching etc.

I think AJ can beat Dubois but he would need to fight a perfect fight to do so. Lewis didn't need to fight a perfect fight to beat Rahman although, to his credit, he actually did exactly that in their rematch

 

This is the long deep rooted and consistent problem AJ has, in that his natural self confidence and self belief is simply not up to scratch after a defeat. It IS who he IS.

This is a very difficult problem to fix and overcome, if it's even possible at this stage of AJ's career.

It's not impossible but it's not looking remotely anywhere near likely from where I'm sitting....

The re-match with Dubois, if it definitely happens, is nothing like the re-match challenge that AJ had with Ruiz. All AJ had to do to beat Ruiz( especially in the terrible condition that Ruiz was in come fight night) was to get on his toes and use his superior height and reach advantage and pretty much pop out a jab to secure a safe win. That's simply not going to happen against Dubois, is it?.

We'll have in this re-match, a man who is post prime AND could be mentally broken beyond repair, and another man who's absolutely buzzing with self belief atm, at, or approaching his prime and also a very aggressive and heavy hitting, very capable counter puncher as well as a good front foot attacking HUNGRY fighter.

If AJ can pull this off I'll be very, very surprised indeed.

 

No, because Dubois can take his power and walk through him. None of Joshua's shots had any effect on Frank 's ferocious pet Frankenstein!

 

He can do it.

Ruiz 2 coming right up