Explain to me how Joshua is the #2 HW in the World

Everyone loses to Fury too.

Not everyone loses to Joshua.

 

How can everyone lose to Fury if everyone loses to Usyk?

Did you even think about what you just typed?

 

No way is Joshua ranked ahead of Parker, the latter who has the two biggest wins in the division.
1. Usyk
2. Fury
3. Parker
4. Joshua
5. Zhang

 

Everyone so far. Is that so hard to comprehend? We don't even know who will fight each other in the future. This is boxing. Anything can happen.

I'll simplify it for you though. This much we do know :
Fury is undefeated.
Usyk is undefeated.
Joshua has lost to Usyk and Ruiz and has no claims to be #2 in the world.

 

I actually stopped to read your comment after first sentence. Hihi. I just needed to read this topic's creator name and suddenly everything was clear.

 

If it needs explaining to you, you really need to follow a different sport

 

Out of Fury/Usyk/AJ- One of these will stick around after the other 2 retire as the HW division is pretty easy pickings. Could probably chuck Wilder in that equation too as even in diminished form they are better than the chasing pack and will end up with a belt again.

Worrying times once they retire as the division will hit a major slump as there isnt much coming through

 

He beat Parker H2H, he outperformed Fury vs mutual opponents recently and he has a better resume than both Parker and Fury. Ergo some people will have him at #2. It is what it is

 

I would place Fury and Usyk joint 1st the loser becoming second

AJ is third and Parker 4th with any of the following for fifth Wilder/Zhang/Joyce

 

He's not #2, he's definitely no lower than # 3 though.

Usyk is # 1 and I can't imagine there is much argument over that, Fury is teetering at # 2 and Joshua is # 3. Joshua may very well beat Fury but right now Fury is still # 2 IMO.

 

I see it in a "what have you done for me lately" way.

AJ has fought four times in the last 12 months. Fury has fought once in the last 15 and it was a contentious decision over a guy AJ then decimated in 2 rounds.

I'd rank Parker ahead of Fury for now too. Fury needs to reaffirm his status, its been too long.

 

Why? Because AJ had the best record of beating quality opponents into the division, then Usyk beat him in back to back fights.

Whilst Furys most difficult challenges haven't aged well:

Wilder - with very thin record in terms quality of beating quality opposition beaten, stepped up and to fight a proven world level boxer in Parker and lost every round (someone who AJ beat comfortably on points).

Wallin - if there wasn't so much money riding on the Wilder rematch the fight would have been stopped due to the cut. Wallin took 4 rounds off Fury whilst AJ made very easy work of Wallin.

Nagannou - Dropped Fury and arguably should of beaten Fury. AJ again made very easy work of him

Parker better than AJ? Parker lost Whyte who AJ beat and also beat Parker himself.

AJ has a quality record with wins over Wlad, Povetkin, Whyte, Parker, Ruiz, Pulev and Wallin.

Whilst Parker has a solid and respectable record it's not better than AJs, in wins over Ruiz, Zhang, Chisora and Wilder.

Only Usyk can be considered to be above AJ at present.

 

AJ hasn’t really beaten a top 10 opponent in a long time.

While Fury and Usyk battle for undisputed AJ should fight some top fighters and earn a shot again.

Hrgovic, Parker, Zhang, Joyce, Wilder, Ruiz 3

They’d all be a huge step up from the opponents he has faced recently

 

Joshua is #3

 

IMO it's Fury's own fault that anyone is considering AJ as #2 over Fury right now:-

1) If Fury hadn't got greedy and fought Ngannou, we would have already had the fight with Usyk and most of the last 6-8 months history would be moot...
2) ... but he did and that's where things have really gone wonky - especially for folks that favour a 'what have you done for me lately' as opposed to 3/4 years ago resume. First he struggled mightily with Nganno, getting dropped and arguably should have lost
3) Joe Parker schooled Wilder, and the x3 Wilder is a big part of Fury's recent resume and #1 status - plus it gave a tone of ammo to folks that claim that Wilder has a padded resume which in turn flatters Fury
4) Joshua emphatically dispatches Wallin, a southpaw who gave Fury a tough fight
5) Then Fury get's the cut which - coupled with bad sparring rumours, Jonny Nelson etc - adds to the narative that he's ducking Usyk, doesn't want the fight, or at least needed more months delay - it just adds to the perception that Fury is maybe on the slide.
6) Hearn & Joshua home in on Ngannou - and the emphatic KO of the Year candidate has further added to the perception that AJ is currently better than Fury
7) Even of folks can't objectively see past it, there is the narattive running alongside that Fury disgraced boxing in almost losiong to a 0-0 novice, where AJ redeemed it by doing what Fury should have done in the first place.

So I think it's easy enough to see where it's come from - but there are only 2 fighters in with a shout of claiming Undisputed, and Joshua isn't one of them so he is the defacto #3 right now.

Tbh - assuming - that Fury / Usyk DOES actually happen on May 18th, then #1 will be settled. Of course, who wins and the manner of the win will add plenty of fuel to the fire on whether the loser is actually #2 or not :-

• If Fury does what some think - but I have doubts over - and Kronk-style Usyk and win convincingly either stoppage or clear UD, then, he will be #1 without question, and all that crap above will be pretty much erased
• If on the other hand Usyk wins a late stoppage or 'easy UD' then it puts Fury in a worse place, especially after all his sausage/middleweight jibes etc. At that point he will have done much the same as AJ did x2 on an older more shopworn Usyk, and all the other stuff above will be amplified with folks having Joshua above him
• Obviously there is a middle ground where Fury/Usyk is a classic closely fought barnburner where it solidifies #1 & #2 and makes the purported rematch more palatable (I'm not sure I'd want to see a rematch in either of the 1st to scenarios tbh)

Personally, I think that even if Usyk wins, we might still get Fury vs AJ - I think at 38 Usyk would & should retire - undefeated, done everything, call it a day, he certainly doesn't owe AJ a 3rd shot at landing a hail mary, especially after Joshua's disgraceful conduct after the 2nd fight, but obviously if Usyk clowns or even stops Fury, it would take a lot of the shine of Fury vs AJ.