Can't blame Fury for waiting to see if Usyk beats Joshua

Only a home fighter? He's fought in USA and Saudi Arabia? And was going to fight Fury in Saudi also?

Also fighting a foreign country doesn't mean receiving a tonne of adversity. Fury is arguably the most popular fighter in the US at HW now.

I don't really see fighting abroad regular that impressive. Fury has a house in the US, and is getting paid a **** load of money and has a huge fan base over there.... hardly a massive disadvantage.

Joshua may mainly want to fight in the UK, but what's wrong with that? I see it as an opportunity to reward his core fanbase by fighting mainly in his home country where his fans can have an easier time travelling?

Why should a UK fighter start fighting abroad frequently and make his loyal home fans travel across the world to see him?

At the end of the day if Joshua's opponents use him fighting from his home base as an argument against him they are just whiny little bitches who envy his success and want to use every excuse in the book to discredit him.

The fact that him fighting mainly at home is used against him is a ridiculous argument.

 

If you can't see the obvious advantages by being the home fighter then there's little point continuing the discussion. It's a well known and understood advantage in any sport.

He was the home fighter in both USA and Saudi. It's not a question of nationality - it's which fighter is favoured and backed by the promotion running the show.

I'm not convinced Fury is that popular in the US really. Fury vs Wilder 3 clearly wasn't selling that well. He's nowhere near the level of someone like Canelo over there (helped partly by the large Mexican population in the US).. or to compare another foreigner, McGregor.

Obviously it makes complete commercial sense for Joshua to fight in the UK as he's a guaranteed sell out attraction (+ great PPV sales). It definitely takes a bit of the gloss off someone's record though in my opinion.

Being the home fighter, and the number 1 guy for an entire promotion means you're going to have very sympathetic judges which is a huge advantage. Every single preference will be accommodated too. All these small marginal gains are important.

 

What's his third best win again?

 

Chisora... yeah it's that bad. And it only gets worse. His second best win is Deontay Wilder. Thats incredibly impressive on paper until you realize Wilder has only beaten 1 good opponent named Luis Ortiz and ducked mediocre Whyte like his life depended on it but because Fury beat him on his "home soil" it's totally splendid i guess

He did take the belts from Klitschko on his own turf which is very impressive albiet a 39 year old Klitschko but an older beltless inactive Klitschko gave Aj hell so very impressive nonetheless. When you actually break it down though, his resume is no better than Riddick Bowe's. The man would be a force in any heavyweight era but he is incredibly overrated

 

Look at this thread I created discussing this earlier. https://www.boxingforum24.com/threa...wilder-resume-debate-lets-settle-this.667970/

The majority of people agree AJ's record is better because it quite clearly is.

I can handle criticism just fine, your arguments were just pathetic and you would not do anything to give AJ any credit, where as I am willing to give Fury credit, which I have done, admitting he has the best win. I even go as far to say as I believe Fury would more likely beat Joshua than the other way around. I'm not biased in favour of Joshua, I look at the facts.

The fact of the matter is far more of AJ's opponents were top quality when compared to Fury or Wilders opponents. That's a fact. And also consider the fact that AJ has been boxing for a significantly less period of time and also became a champion and stepped up a lot quicker in his career than Fury or Wilder did.

Based on all the evidence, AJ has a lot more to be proud of than Fury and Wilder when it comes to boxing.

I'm wasting to no more time with you, especially if you're going to resort to ad-hominem attacks like me being vegan.

I'll end it there.

 

Ok, well what possible scenario could AJ fight in now where he wouldn't be a home fighter at heavyweight?

He's far bigger than any fighter at HW at the moment besides Fury who's also a British fighter.

He could go and fight fury in the US I suppose, but why bother with that?

Also it's not just about being a commercial success, he fights in the UK to please his fans.

 

Actually I think one possibility is that if he loses to Usyk he fights Usyk in Ukraine. It wouldn't matter so much, even if it was a MR show out there, because Usyk would be backed by vociferous support. I bet the rematch location is already decided though and there's no way Hearn would take that risk.

Alternatively he could fight Fury at Old Trafford or somewhere on a joint promotion. That would level the playing field a bit. Wembley has been synonymous with big Matchroom shows in the past so that wouldn't be a level playing field.

This isn't a question about "who's the biggest" - Joshua is biggest revenue creating HW by some margin. The question is whether fighting as the home fighter tarnishes his overall record. For me it definitely does.

 

Fair enough to what you're saying though, it would make his record a bit more impressive if he was to do that, but even if it doesn't happen, unless there's a clear example of him robbing an opponent on the cards, I don't think it matters. It only matters if you have examples of this effecting the result of a fight, and cataloguing cases of Joshua winning because of this advantage.

I don't think he has won a fight because of this advantage. He's only beaten two opponents on points, and he clearly beat both.

I think the best bet really would be the Fury fight in a cross promotion, like you say.

 

It's all the small marginal advantages it gives which add up. Being a home fighter definitely makes it a bit easier.

Usyk has fought away many times in his career which makes his record very impressive. Fury's best wins are as an away fighter also.

It just takes the gloss off a bit if a fighter gets all his wins by being the heavy favourite home fighter.

 

I agree with Usyk's record though. Even though he still has to prove himself as a heavyweight, he's got an insane CW record. Has fought away many times and become undisputed.

P4P maybe the best record in the world, depending on how good you think those CW's are.

I still think Joshua's record is the best HW record and the way he's conducted himself is the most impressive though. Home fighter or not, he's never struck me as a ducker. He challenged Wilder, got ducked, he challenged Fury, that fell through because of no fault of his own, and now he's agreed to fight Usyk and hasn't ducked. He's been willing to fight them all.

You gotta respect him for not making BS excuses and running away like other fighters often do.

 

Joshua looks shredded on twitter. Hes coming in light and vision tunneled

 

I think that's right. I am tired of the Fury situation - even if lots of it is out of his hands. He hasn't been that well looked after really by Arum.

I think Joshua's new marketing as a "throwback fighter" is interesting. The connotations of that are someone that's not afraid to fight different challenges and isn't afraid to take a few losses. I suspect his promotion know it's reasonably likely he might lose against Usyk. This new way of marketing a popular fighter as a "throwback fighter" suggests that is the case.

It's good because it's about time the casual audience didn't see an undefeated record as the be all and end all.

 

Fury is at risk of losing his fans. I like Fury, and rate him as the best heavyweight in the world at the moment (or at least at the moment he KOed Wilder) but, I'm losing my patience as a fan. Maybe all the delays are for good reasons; doesn't change the fact that he's sitting on his butt, while AJ is taking on real fights.

 

Fury has sadly, wasted his career since dethroning Wlad in 2015.

He does seem to have genuine mental issues but the fact remains that Fury has only ever fought, IMO, one top fighter as I don't consider Wilder to be a top fighter. Yes, he's dynamite with the right hand but that's all he is. Fury has never made a title defence and he's as bad as said Wilder in cherry picking his opponenets to make himself look good. There's no doubt in my eyes now that both fighters (or their camps) have ducked Joshua, for whatever reasons. Whyte and Ortiz have also both ducked Joshua, so they're not alone in that.

I'm no massive Joshua fan although I wouldn't say I hate him - I do quite like him as a fighter but he's flawed. What I will say is at least Joshua has taken on his mandatories. When has Fury ever done that? I like Usyk too and I think they are both good fighters, both far better than Wilder is. You have to give some respect to AJ, even if you don't like the guy, for fighting Usyk. I would never see Wilder do that, for instance?