If Pulev had smashed Wlad to bits and Joshua now was the challenger for his belts, would people say he stood a chance?
If Pulev somehow comes out as the victor I would geniunely consider him to be a (the) champion, I would not mix him up with Wilders freak show.
Lets not dimish Joshuas performance by saying Wlad was shot. That was the best Wlad performance for possibly 7 years (going back to the Haye fight). He was moving great, throwing the jab with authority, murderous right hand and up on his toes dancing. And he came to have a tear up. This was a great Wlad by any measure.
^A Wlad fanboy claiming the other guy is a dirty fighter. You couldn't make this up. Your fraudulent hero fought his whole career using cheating and fouling to win fights you stupid mullet. Golota bit guys necks and thew combos into their groin. That isn't comparable to spitting out the mouthpiece which doesn't harm or hurt hurt the other fighter in any way. Spitting the mouthpiece out isn't neraly as despicable as repeatedly resting 250 pounds of body weight onto a guys spinal cord or launching a head butt straight into a guys face. Wlad threw illegal double handed fist pumps on Pulev , illegally bear hugged and grappled him non-stop and made him fight on an illegal 6 inch spongy canvas. Joshua will not need to use any fouls or dirty tricks like Wlad did to beat Pulev.
I would LOL if Pulev, who is looking not that great right now, somehow beat AJ. People would lose their minds and boxing wouldn't make sense anymore with the HW division blown wide open. But the truth is AJ is very likely going to demolish him.
I don't remember WK being being on and the floor and spitting his shield to buy seconds vs Pulev. What fight did you watch, Mac?
LOL he was 41 coming off an 18 month layoff....was it a good performance by Wlad?.....yes.....was it the best Wlad in the last 7 years?......NO.
yes it ws definitely a semi shot wlad or at least heartily post prime , noone in their 40s is going to be top class as you are 100% right to insinuate. but I would concede that it was wlads smartest performance. He worked with the broadest set of skills I have seen him deal in order to nullify AJ's game. its a shame that in their 40s noone can fight will a full stamina tank, and no matter how smart they are, late in the fight, once the brain is denied adequate o2, it gets dumb real quick. If this wlad was the one who had got in the ring with retired 37 year old sanders, and was gifted a full tank too, then he'd not have lost to such middling opposition.
Sanders destroys any version of Wlad, as does Joshua. There's a reason he chose to avoid rematching the both of them.
Mmmmm Just to throw this in there.....Sanders was younger and had fought more recently than the 41yo Wlad that was beating Joshua up until the stoppage. Just something to think about.