Do you consider Joshua to be in his true prime now?

Is he in his prime in the sense that he won't get considerably better? Then yes; I believe he won't get significantly better than he is now.

 

He's not in his prime yet, Joshua still has loads to improve on. Joshua even said before the takam fight that they started working more on the technical side of things in camp after the klitschko fight, and rightly so. Give it another 2 or 3 fights, and then he will be prime. He still has so much to learn.

 

Translation. Fight 41 year old layoff Wlad, beat Martins bum ass, and he chose Parker in a unification fight over Wilder.

 

He's still very stiff with his L hand and seems to force his knees to be bent.

Tons of improvements to be made.
Much like a young Wlad

 

At 28 Joshua is physically in his prime, but he may still improve and be yet to actually peak. He's still learning and picking up things, he showed new skills vs Wlad I hadn't seen before, in almost every fight he's shown something new, so he could still maybe add things to his repertoire. We won't know for sure until later, this maybe as good as he gets or maybe he still has a lot to still show us.

Wilder is prime at 32 he's in his physical prime as most athletes seem to peak later now, most heavyweight probably peak after 30. I don't think he's showed any real improvements in a while now, this current version of Wilder is as good as it gets.

Parker at 26 is yet to hit his prime, physically or technically. He's still pretty raw in some ways and I think will get better if he gets a better trainer later on down the line. But maybe not, Tua peaked very early as did Tyson, maybe he's plateaued early, again we'll only know with hindsight.

Fury has definitely peaked already when he fought Wlad. Even though he is only 29, all the weight gain and drug abuse will have prematurely aged him, he already looks like a man in his 30's and has for some time. Even if he can get back to a prime weight I think he's a past prime fighter.

 

Consider looking at it this way fella, take a 41 year old average male in the world, nothing special works a job, supports his family maybe has a hobby or two that he dedicates upwards of an hour or two a week getting better at it, Then take a person who is 41, been an athlete all his life, competed at an Olympic level, became one of the all time greats in the professional game, is in superior condition than most men, spends most of his life dedicated to boxing, training everyday then it doesn’t seem so black and white as to categorise him as an ‘old man’ out of the ring for a year and a half. You have to understand these people are athletes and although human and not perfect or susceptible to injuries or declining they still operate at the highest level and WKS was no slouch, he looked in great condition and gave one of the best fights of his life it transcends into much more than people will say, that was a test for Joshua that he passed whether he got dropped or not is irrelevant. The IBF mandatory the gentleman was taking about was Takam, not Martin, Joshua won the IBF strap from Martin, Takam is a solid boxer with slick skills and Joshua kept him tamed all fight and in my opinion wasn’t an early stoppage at all, the refs job is too look after the fighters, everybody wants their to be a conspiracy that the ref wasn’t paid to keep AJ’s KO sheet going but I don’t think that’s the case, before the ref stopped it Takam was wobbled and Joshua went on for the kill and the ref spotted it and put a stop to it not forgetting the cuts about both his eyes that were troubling him. Can nobody see there is a plan behind all this, taking the wilder fight now doesn’t make sense, perhaps people just like to rock the boat but believe me Joshua will fight Wilder, doesn’t it make sense to fight Parker now who is arguably the no.3 in the world, beat him and then go for the last belt !? Whether Joshua gets beat or not he has made a big mark on British Boxing and Boxing in general. I feel like Parker’s team have prodded the fire and they aren’t going to like being burnt, Parker is a genuine threat but he will not beat Joshua and if come Sunday I’m wrong, I will give Parker his credit and then he can go on to face Wilder which I doubt he will do straight away. You can’t deny the way these things are marketed and hyped they provide a lot of people with excitement and give the true passionate boxing fans the fights they want to see, the best boxing the best. Saturday night is going to be awesome and i expect Joshua to be tested and come through with 4 belts.

 

The Klitschko fight was a gut check and a learning experience. Anybody with just 19 fights has the potential to improve.

 

This right here is what confuses me and makes me SMMFH. Winning"big" fights or winning fights one was "supposed" to lose doesn't have anything to do a fighters prime.

People's physical primes are usually mid/late 20's through mid/late 30's. But AJ has less than a full decade in this sport he's still learning the basics for championship caliber fighters. His physical talents are so great they've carried him all the way to the very top of the hw division.

Once he's mentally caught up to his physical talents he'll be on the back 9 of his physical tools. He will be considered prime from the masses right now, I know he's not truly at his prime and will not be for a couple years but absolute peak for him will be late 20's to early 30's.

Him losing to DW will NOT have any bearing on his physical or mental prime. Too many "fans" on here take fighters greatest wins or longest winning streaks and claim that was the fighters prime, that's not the case most of the time.

Do many of you "fans" truly make yourselves believe that super human unbeatable, unmatched, fastest and most powerful never ending 10 punch combo in less than 3 seconds Tyson had a prime from 15 To 20 years old??????

He was ahead of his age physically but behind his age mentally. Tyson truly spent his prime in prison and the back 9 of his prime was fighting strictly for money.

Athletes primes are large gaps anywhere from mid 20's to mid to now late 30's... Of course (aka Tyson) some athletes are physically prime in their early 20's but mentally they aren't and the mental aspect is far more important than the physical.

All these athletes that reach the pro level are on a different level physically, what separate the good pros from the great and all time greatest is the mental aspect which usually comes later than the physical

 

Wilder avoided Wlad, Martin was three fights before Wlad and their was no offer for a unification with Wilder who to his own credit went on to KO Ortiz.

So again, no cherry picking.

 

Jesus Christ another alt.

 

I tend to rate {most} athletes that way.
18-22 amateur years college football/b-ball/boxing Olympics
22-26 rookie pro years
Depending on how quick they adapt to the pros and how they treat their body- I'd say most pro athletes move into their prime 27 and it lasts based on injuries, lifestyle.

Few break that mode..like Bhopkins. His prime may have extended into late 30's early 40s.
Or like Antonio Tarver who started pretty late, so his prime began past 30...I think?!

I think Joshua's body is at its peak, but not sure what he can learn and adapt to in the ring. Time will tell!

 

I think AJ is around 2 years from his prime. It depends on his desire,but he's full of muscle and it might play him up later on. But who knows. Wilder is probably hitting his peak about now. Wilders a freak, and i think he could maintain that peak for longer than most, physically.Mentally i dunno.

 

He still looks green. His next couple of fights he'll be in his prime.

 

no. prime would be about 3 years away for both guys. Maybe 2 for Wilder.