It was always a gamble for both fighters taking other fights But this is going to cost AJ mega millions Greed is NOT good. AJ is now tainted with the loss and if it ever does happen in the future, AJ v Wilder, before it was both undefeated, both holding all the belts, now it will just be another heavyweight fight
It won’t be just “another heavyweight fight” Because IF Joshua comes through the Ruiz rematch it will still be an absolutely mega fight for all the belts. Unifying the division.
Hindsight is a wondefull thing and in fairness to hearn whenever I seen him talk all he has said is we want the fight now because one of them could lose and meas up the entire thing. I think you can blame wilder and his team as they were not long offered 120 million for this fight. They can say goodbye to that forever.
You can go back to the Lennox Lewis days, to see why the strategy of letting a big fight "marinate" can lead to it never ever happening, you both missing out on the BIG CASH on offer. History repeats itself because no one is unbeatable. Also arrogance, money and too much puddy leads to a champion getting soft.
Hopefully all the money men who push their fighters around will learn heavyweight boxing isn't something you can leave for years without a huge risk of the massive payday going. For it what its worth lets say Joshua wins the rematch...suddenly WIlder and Fury would be wanting the fight with slightly more vigor! Not sure you can blame matchroom/hearn/joshua for Wilder fighting guys AJ got rid of easily 5/6 fights ago after 40+ fights though...
Well, the argument has long been that someone may lose out in the long term. Problem is that the money men advising Wilder never seemed to acknowledge that Joshua losing doesn't do anything but damage to Wilder himself. It certainly doesn't make Wilder more popular. It doesn't change his results. I mean, what has changed since last night? Joshua's next fight is a stadium job in a now intriguing rematch. He will earn a fortune. Wilder will be paid considerably less for a rematch which nobody wants to see. Hard to see how Wilder comes out of last night looking in any way a winner.
True, but only one guy has an "0" and only one guy has been stopped. The fight looked better than ever on paper until just now.
The 0 will be negated by “I have 3/4 belts”. In the greater picture I don’t think it does much to the fight. It all depends on whether Joshua can reclaim those belts.
Exactly. People going on about a loss having a massively negative reaction on Joshua's career were always barking up the wrong tree. Lewis Tyson, Tyson Holyfield, Lewis Holyfield; all fights which took place between heavyweights who had already lost.
Truth is they new Aj ain't that good. They knew Wilder would spark him out and Fury was make him look silly. They ducked them both fleecing the casuals making millions. Once the made the most money fighting lesser opponent they would have fed him him to Wilder or fury
I'm sure AJ will survive. Fighters losing isn't the end. More important is AJ has to beat Ruiz and then any fight after that is still huge. UFC doesn't have this problem of fighters losing a fight. Fights can still be made but it's all on the one who loses to bounce back.
It will still be worth a bomb won't it and Joshua is at least known a bit in the US now for the rings reason but there we go
