How good of a run is Franklin, Helenius, Wallin, Ngannou?

He was supposed to fight Whyte in the Helenius fight noob.

 

Decent, probably the best run there is currently at HW if Joshua can beat Ngannou.

 

manufactured bodybuilding bum

Francis will chin him

 

So? He'd already beaten Whyte, and I said that Helenius was an acceptable comeback fight. Drop the "noob" stuff it's pretty cringe.

 

Not great. Aside from the mma guy none were given any chance at beating him. None had the power to do so.

 

It's not the stuff of legends, but he had three fights in 2023 and one of those was a rebuilding fight, and one of those was a last minute replacement for Whyte, so I don't know how anyone can complain unless they're just determined to pick holes in Joshua's career. But those people are beaches anyway, and nothing will satisfy them.

I'm actually really impressed by how well Joshua has bounced back from all his losses. He went right back in against Ruiz to prove the first fight was a fluke, went right back in again Usyk and was clearly improved from the first version, even though he still lost, and has now got back into the driving seat and is lining up a potential big money fight against the winner of Usyk and Fury if he gets past Ngannou. Does anyone really think Fury would respond to his first loss like this? The so-called real fighting man.

 

He beat a green Whyte years ago before he got wins over Povetkin, Parker, Rivas, Chisora and so on. It was a worthy rematch. Wallin was an acceptable comeback fight as well. He was a man who gave Fury all sorts of trouble and was coming off a win over Gassiev. And people were saying he was going to cause Joshua problems as well. And don't forget all three of those fights took place in the same year and now he's fighting another man who gave Fury problems and is an accomplished athlete in his own sport. I don't see what there is to complain about, unless you just like complaining or picking holes in Joshua's resume. It's all a bit old womanly.

 

When your co-main is fighting your main rival while you pick at Fury's leftovers? It's not great.

As I said, Franklin and Helenius were good rebound fights, but when Parker is fighting better opposition as a co-main that's where the run starts deteriorating. It's an honest assessment, and only AJs nut huggers would try and disagree when they were giving Fury hell for fighting the same opposition.

 

Fury is a champion though (supposedly). He has higher obligations.

Besides people were giving Fury hell for fighting Ngannou before they saw how badly he got his arse pushed in. To say Ngannou's performance has changed people's opinions of him is an unverstatement.

 

Higher obligation? Whyte, Chisora, and Ngannou. Those are some mighty high obligation.

 

That still doesn't excuse AJ for fighting Ngannou after slating Fury for it. How good Ngannou looked isn't relevant when you have better opponents to fight.

The fact remains this is the second fight AJs had where the co-main is better than the main event. That's a problem that needs addressing.

 

Higher standards to be held to. Whatever. I don't think you understood the point of my post.

 

I think it does. First off Joshua can fight whoever he chooses. He doesn't hold a belt or have mandatories waiting in line. Second, a fighter's performance in prior fights can definitely change a fanbase's opinion of him. Look at Zhang. Why exactly is Zhang vs Parker such a hotly debated fight? Because both men are coming off career best performances. Zhang before the Hrgovic fight was just another big punching bloke who Hrgovic was supposed to easily blow away. Then Joyce was supposed to easily beat Zhang and show Hrgovic how it's done. Now Zhang's one of the hottest prospects in the division and thrown about in the same company as Joshua, Fury, Usyk and company. And Parker was just a stepping stone for Wilder and a man who most people thought was finished after the Joyce fight. Now he's back in the mix. Ngannou was seen as a joke coming into the Fury fight but is now seen as a legitimate threat rightly or wrongly. So it's intriguing to see how Joshua will do. And frankly boxing took a massive hit when Fury dropped the ball and it needs rectifying. If Joshua's the man to do that then great.

Anyway, what does it matter if Joshua's last two fights have been upstaged by the co-main? That happens all the time. I admit the Wallin fight was poor for a main event, but this Ngannou fight has me intrigued, and if Joshua wins then the next fight should be the winner of Usyk Fury or Hrgovic or someone of that calibre. If he then chooses to fight Dillian Whyte again, or Dubois or someone like that then we can talk. But I don't see any problem with his current run of opponents considering where he's at and where he came from in the past year and a half.

 

I agree with a lot of your points here, and yes the Ngannou match up is interesting enough, but he definitely could do better.