Does Anthony Joshua have the best resume of any active heavyweight?

Good question.

 

This is a simple question, with a simple answer that requires a caveat.

The best resume among the current heavies?
Yes, comfortably.

But.

That doesn't necessarily mean he's the best current heavyweight...
It means he's the most proven, and probably deserves to be considered favourite against far less proven fighters as a result - but it doesn't necessarily mean he beats them (as Usyk beating him twice shows), especially given that he's not quite as effective as he once was.

Resumes mean more than a good few people give them credit for, but they're not the be all and end all.

 

It's hard to judge what 'best' means here. If we're talking about the game of boxing in general, then Usyk is far ahead, because of his Olympic & CW success, and heavyweight accomplishments so far. If you're talking about a good story, and belts won, it's Fury. AJ won Gold also, and brought back the big nights for HW boxing. Do you judge a resume by the quality of fighter beaten, or just the belts won and defences made, because Wilder would be in this argument also

 

He has the most depth in terms of fighting a wide variety of opponents, styles, ranked contenders, etc.

 

Record aside Chisora has the best professional resume among active HW boxers. After that it has to be AJ followed by Whyte.

 

A bit of both... A good number of quality defences is the ideal.

And that means Wilder absolutely doesn't feature into the argument (because there's plenty of quantity and very little proven quality isn't worth very much).

Fury's story is a complicated one, too, because whilst there's the inspirational side of his comeback... There's also the fact he was a PEDs cheat and a question mark over his (by FAR) biggest achievement due to the lack of rematch with Wlad.

 

No. Not even close.

Chisora has the best resume in terms of quality of opposition fought (Fury x3, Usyk, Vitali, Haye etc.)

Fury has the best resume in terms of results (Wlad, Wilder x3). He's also fought better and more dangerous opponents than Usyk and Joshua.

Then it's Usyk (Joshua x2)

Then it's a toss-up between Joshua and Wilder. Joshua's got the best win (41 year old Wlad over officially 38 year old Ortiz) but Wilder's got the best result (Fury draw) and only two losses, both to the same man, who is taller, longer and 3 stone heavier (Fury x2), to Joshua's three losses to two different men (Ruiz, Usyk x2), who are both much smaller and one of them was a fringe contender type.

 

TBF Chisora's fought more contenders than anyone currently active... He's lost most of those fights, but been close in a few.

His resume is definitely underrated, it's miles better than some fighters who get routinely ranked above him (Ortiz in particular) but he's still a high level gatekeeper at the end of it all, IMHO...

 

Who is Anthony Joshua?

 

Ofcourse he doesn’t. Losses hurt your resume.

He lost twice to Usyk for example.

It’s like putting you worked at Apple on your resume and you got fired from there. It doesn’t look good.

 

Most respectable.

Took on many, won some, lost some.

 

As far as recognizable names, I guess. The issue is he didn't fight the best version of many of those guys.

I'd say it's Usyk. Guy has beaten top contenders in their primes time and time again, except for about 2 fights.

 

The major reason why people on here try to big up Joshua's resume (which Povetkin down is entirely Chisora-level) is because his career has been so relatively bad and embarrassing, thus he's "safe".

1-3 in his biggest fights without fighting Ortiz, Wilder or Fury.

Plus he's a good respectful boy: "Mike Tyson would have battered me". Joshua lacks confidence and knows his place. Many people like that for one reason or another.