Hearn/Joshua and Finkel/Wilder comically overplayed their hands

"a novice boxer"

Ngannou started boxing in his early 20's, as did 8 years boxing experience Rahman when he starched Lewis with one shot, as did 10 years boxing experience Puritty when he ground Wlad down.

It was obvious that Ngannou was more dangerous than many name boxers, I was saying this before the fight. I never bought into the silly narrative that Ngannou would lose to Dave Allen or whoever. Neither did the "experts", who made Ngannou a far lesser underdog than many other contenders have been and would have been.

"Wilder ducked the fight"

If anything both sides were ducking the fight and there are a litany of quotes from Joshua and the Hearns proving it. It was regarded as an extremely dangerous fight for Joshua that they wanted to put off as long as possible, partly to grow the fight, partly to age/wear the 4 years older Wilder out. Ideally Wilder would lose to someone like Whyte and they wouldn't have to fight him.

 

"He never ducked."

Incorrect:

[url]https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/joshua%E2%80%99s-consistent-ducking-of-wilder-and-the-wilder-whyte-wbc-saga-explained.711576/[/url]

"He got more for Usyk 2"

He got two losses for his trouble and his career/brand seriously damaged, in addition to the worst defeat of all time vs Ruiz which also obliterated his credibility/brand. They had the chance to fight Wilder for massive money but took three rehab fights instead, trying to rebuild AJ while further aging Wilder out, letting him pile up more inactivity and wear. Their greed and cynicism backfired big time.

 

Another irony: If Joshua had fought and beat Wilder, he would have probably got fights with Fury too. And Fury wouldn’t have been able to “steal” the Wilder fights from him!

 

Pacquaio lost two fights during the 5 year delaying period, one by stone cold KO. I think this fact made both sides confident that even if their guy lost a couple of times, there would still be similar shine on the matchup. But both sides were overconfident even there, with both fighters losing three times, with three combined KO losses!