Joshua couldn't stop Jake Paul in 5 rounds. He ain't stopping Rico because Rico isn't stupid enough to stand in front of him like Ngannou did.
The thing is, there is no skill that is a substitute for pure raw stopping power. AJ might get stopped or out-thought, but there's definitely a possibility that he does to Rico what Bari Weiss did to CBS and even early. But it would almost certainly only be that. That he had the equalizer again and didn't have to worry long enough about getting unorthodoxed by a guy from a different combat sport who does weird stuff but at a high level.
Couldn't or wouldn't? That fight was ridiculous and I am as angry with HOW joshua fought that fight as I am with him actually taking that fight at all. There's not enough criticism for that... If i was one of those that bet on fights I would be outraged. The narrative that Jake Paul avoided the fight and joshua couldn't find him for 5 rounds is a joke. (On the other hand I would never bet on those curiosity fights, as you can never be sure what is going on there)
My read on the fight was rounds 1-4, AJ was specifically avoiding head shots because he was worried about seriously hurting Jake Paul, leading to him just not throwing shots he could have landed. Round 5, he decided "ok I've only got 4 rounds left, have to just box for real now", and almost got it done that round. Got it done the next round, highlight reel KO and stills included. I think he could have done in round 1 what he did in round 5 if he'd wanted to. AJ has had the **** kicked out of him by a dude his own size and with similar punching power (Dubois). He knows how bad it is. He knows that he should not be throwing full steam punches at the head of a blown up light heavy. He's not some terrible person who wants a body on his record. Hence rounds 1-4.
Might be. Though that would be pretty abysmal from an olympic gold medalist and former unified world champion. I myself was able to pretty easily dial the force of my punches up and down, according to opponent. We would spar smaller opponents and women, too. Also beginners. I don't need to say that i was like 100 levels below Joshua's. How can it not be expected by someone like Joshua to go 30%, then 50% and so on? He could have just jabbed him to death for two rounds. Just a weird thing to me, still.
given the instances where he could clearly have followed up with a right then clearly just held it, my assumption is that he wasn’t for the reasons I said. I guess it could have been for other reasons (some shitty agreement with Jake Paul to carry him for a while I guess?). Because round 5, it was like a switch flipped and suddenly AJ was his normal fairly competent boxing self, cutting off the ring, not being hesitant to pull the trigger on an outmatched opponent, etc. If there were some other reason (hesitancy due to the Dubois loss?) you wouldn’t expect him to change that much from one round to the next.
Indeed. I have similar suspections. Don't know what the exact reasons are, but that Farce should have ended in the first round. Since people were betting on that it should have been investigated. And all those that argued joshua couldn't do more than he did have no way to put him in their top 25 while being consistent. And criticising paul for 'spoiling' the fight is equally ridiculous, as if paul was able to do that by his own will. The way joshua acted, half the forum members could have done that for the first four rounds.
Rico won’t fetch track shoes to a boxing match like Paul did either and while he might not be as static as Ngannou he won’t get out of the way of the bigger bombs Joshua throws over those from Usyk
If AJ couldn't effectively cut the ring off against Jake Paul, you think he's somehow going to land punches on a fighter where the far superior Usyk couldn't? That's fantasy. There's a reason AJs next fight is against an Albanian nobody has ever heard of rather than someone with an actual pulse.
Massively different and you either don’t understand that or you’re intentionally ignoring it. Rico won’t come to run, he’ll want to fight, he’ll set his feet and try landing heavy shots and in doing so he will expose himself to the much greater offensively skilled Joshua who’s shots will have an immensely greater effect than those of Usyk. You use Usyk as an example but it’s universally accepted that Usyk was far from his best on the night, even suggestions that he hadn’t taken it seriously and came in very unprepared. That said, and this was my observation and is my opinion, in Rd4 Usyk stepped up the pace landed at will and easily had Rico in trouble. From that point forward Usyk knew he could up the pace and end the fight whenever he wanted to and being in no danger from Rico he carried Rico to the 10th & 11th where he ensured there would be no chance of a shock by TKOing Rico. That’s my opinion and only Usyk would really know if that were the case though he’d never admit it Joshua wouldn’t have that luxury because Rico would pose a real danger due to Joshua’s poor punch resistance, therefore AJ will be cagey, he’ll box at distance and Rico will come forward, walking straight on to a Joshua right or an uppercut. When that happens it will be all she wrote for Rico, he couldn’t absorb Usyks shots so he’s got zip zero chance of taking Joshua’s
I don’t know that AJ really has the jab for that. Dubois, yes. Dubois would be fully capable of knocking out Jake Paul by only throwing jabs.
Except it really isn't. It's AJs last performance, one where he did rather poorly. I think it's important taking that into account. That's making a rather huge assumption that Rico is just going to plod straight into AJ without a game plan. There is far less complexity to fighting AJ than there is Usyk, even if you do want to argue Usyk wasn't taking the fight as seriously as he should have. I also use Usyk as an example because it's their common opponent. Usyk is also vastly superior offensively than AJ is. He landed at will against AJ, Dubios and Fury yet struggled with Rico. AJ struggled to land against Jake Paul and Dubios, only really having major success against Ngannou because he was literally standing in front of him and didn't move at all. I also don't buy that Usyk let Rico off for 6 rounds. If he could have finished him earlier then he would have, and I just don't see AJ having success where it took the best heavyweight in the division 11 rounds to get what many consider to be a British stoppage. It's also pretty bold to assume that if AJ is trying to box on the outside, it means that Rico is going to come charging head first. He can also just box at range, likely with more success because he's the bigger, more awkward man. I don't think Peter Fury or Rico will take AJ lightly, and will come in with a crafty game plan to exploit AJs flaws. In saying that, it's all speculation on both our parts. It would be an interesting fight to see.