Deontay Leshun Wilder vs. Anthony Oluwafemi Olaseni Joshua

I really hope so, I genuinely do. I freely admit I jumped feet first onto the Joshua Hype Train and seeing his later career mental fragility has been more than a little disconcerting. I honestly think that Tyson Fury's return from the boxing wilderness and losses to Ruiz and Usyk has rattled him to his very core and you never fully rebuild from that kind of mental tanking but, he has the tools to ice Wilder, he just needs someone to dig it out of him based around a solid, well drilled game plan. I just hope we get to see it.

 

Maybe it's good that this fight is in Saud as Joshua can be buried in the desert.

 

Joshua, if he continues to decline as he is showing us, gets splattered by Wilder.

Wilder himself has not shown any improvement, but he doesn't need it if AJ continues sliding.

 

Just for the record, I predicted a Joshua win a while back, but his ability is declining. So Wilder wins.

 

A Confident aggressive Joshua backs up Wilder and stops him early. He has to look at it as a 3 round fight go for him from first bell. Otherwise yes he can easily get caught slipping by Wilder over 12 rounds and at some point most likely would be in trouble. Still a 50/50 fight imho.

 

I still favour the better boxer ie Joshua. He knows the dangers Wilder will provide and he is going to go straight at him from the opening bell ie Lennox Lewis Andrew Gollata style.

Wilder has had only one round after the Fury trilogy and we don't even know physically if he is the same after the punishment he took from the Fury trilogy and whether he is physically the same again, will his chin hold up to AJ's power.

Also AJ has been more active then him and perhaps has a better defence, better fundamentals than Wilder.

Imo outside a lucky punch Wilder doesn't have a chance.

 

If either squeezes in another fight, they'll pick a bum without power. Both are cherries waiting to be picked by anyone decent.

 

Wilder turns aj Into a shish kabob

 

AJ is going to overtrain for this fight if he stays with Derrick James

Widler beats him up and looks like Sweet Pea in the process.

Fury & Wilder didn't lose a step through their wars, they took a part of each others souls which has made them better. Fury now possesses the power of 5 suns and Wilder has gained unstoppable willpower.

 

AJ:s lead left hook was sneaky dangerous the other night. Helenius just got out of the way from it, but that could very well penetrate the very poor defence of Wilder.

Joshua was too easy to hit, but otherwise he did a lot of nice things against Helenius. It's just that he seems to lack confidence. I think a fully confident Joshua wins this 8 or 9 times out of 10 since he does every single thing better than Wilder except that right to the head, but you're never going to make it at the very top level if you don't believe in yourself, no matter how gifted you are.

 

One thing Wilder has over AJ is punch speed. His opponents actually get surprised at how rapidly he launches that right hand from range, it arrives at the target way quicker than they anticipate. Wilder is a faster puncher than AJ and has a better technique for launching it from far out in comparison to AJ.

Wilder has also been practicing very hard with Malik Scott on backing up and trying to catch opponents with his right hand from an unexpected short distance when opponents bum rush him like we say vs Helenius.

Only thing I have question marks over is the state of Wilders chin and ability to take punishment after the Fury Trilogy wars. AJ obviously hits harder than Fury.

 

I can see AJ on his bike from round 1. No way he fights fire with fire, he doesn't have it in him. He will run and take a few calculated shots while being ultra defensive and timid, stinking the place out. This will be the only time I ever root for Wilder, but I thoroughly dislike both guys. I want a big Wilder KO, but something tells me AJ may pull off a disputed decision buy running and winning a controversial SD with a good jab.

Let's not forget AJ has been far more active, Wilder has not spent much time in a boxing ring as of late.

 

I've always said Joshua KO's Wilder early, but Joshua isn't the same fighter he once was. He can still win if he's willing to be aggressive and push Wilder onto the back foot. But Joshua now is too tentative, Joshua pre Usyk would of taken Helenius out early, now Joshua/Wilder is much closer to a 50/50 fight.

Hate to say it, but wouldn't shock me if Wilder comes from behind to KO a Joshua giving another tentative performance. Right now I say that's the most likely outcome unless Joshua can find some of his old belief in himself and put it on Wilder from the opening bell.

 

I went with wilder by stoppage. But I say that with no real conviction. At his age anything could happen and he’s only scored one win since 2019