Ruiz gets disrespected a lot on here. He's a decent fighter and can give anyone a tough fight. So many good fights for Ruiz, I hope we get to see some. Chisora, Whyte, Joyce, Wilder, Usyk, Fury would all be intriguing.
He has two losses on his resume. He will need Usyk to become more than he is without losing a re-match. A 41 year old Wlad, and a 39 year old Povetkin. He also has a victory over a fat 282 pound Ruiz Not enough. It would help if Whyte beats Fury in their upcoming match..
I think he would need to do more than that to crack the all-time top ten. IF, he were to win his rematch with Usyk (0.5 probability) and then beat Fury (0.3 probability) and Wilder (0.6 probability; beating all three probability 0.09) I think he could be considered an ATG and I would then rank him somewhere between 10 and 20 all-time. From my estimation of his chances, he has about one chance in eleven of hitting all three notes.
Louis, Marciano, Ali, Frazier, Foreman, Holmes, Tyson, Holyfield, Lewis, Wlad. Thats 10 guys. If Joshua were to do what I said he would need to do, you would have a hard time ranking anyone other than these guys over him. So thats a #11 lock. And you might be able to make an argument for him outranking one of those guys.
not atg. however, one thing that most seem to be over looking....didn't Usyk admit that Joshua hurt him a couple of times. don't rule out an upset in the rematch. not going to bet the farm just yet...but...it is heavyweight boxing and any thing can happen.
Atg status is already over for joshua. His best wins have been guys at 40 years old...some even older. I m sorry but the difference between a 40 year old guy and say a 30 year old guy is massive regardless of how well you,ve kept yourself. Add to that he went life and death with a 40 year old plus klitchko. He got battered round the ring by a grossly overweight andy ruiz. Then had to throw money at the problem to come back and run away from him half the night. Fights a guy 4 inches smaller...30 lbs lighter...4 inch reach advantage and fails to show any real sort of fight. Pulev, povetkin etc handpickers. They,ve been good fighters once upon a time...but their kryptonite at 40 years old is an athletic guy. At this stage i,d say atg status is out of his reach already. The only younger guys hes beaten with a pulse were parker,ruiz, breazeale, whyte. Wilder took breazeale out in one round. Parker went life and death with chisora. Whyte had no notable wins before joshua beat him...just club fighters....and his training camps back then involved trying to get someone to give him time hanging about a klitchko camp and ruiz knocked him about. Hes a decent fighter joshua but hes not what hes been built up to be. The quicker people realise that then maybe the guy can get on with having a good career apart from trying to keep up the charade that hes an elite fighter as hes been sold as. I get your a fan...but as good as usyk is...its an embarrssing defeat bearing in mind how much usyk was giving away. Chisora done better than joshua. Joshua had massive advantages over him...theres a reason very very few cruiserweights have much success going to heavyweight. Because its a very difficult thing to do. Yet joshua had very little answers against him.
If Joshua, somehow manages to beat both Usyk and Fury, then of course. It would take some pretty one-eyed fans to not give him that. Lewis, who many regard as a top 5. If you take becoming undisputed against Holyfield off his resume... He would be left with a shot Tyson, and getting a cuts stoppage against Klitschko before retirement. No fight with Bowe, and two losses to sub par competition. Then a list of victories over also rans. So I think if Joshua somehow becomes undisputed, then you have to acknowledge him. And even if he doesn't, he is already pretty much on par with Vitali and Bowe. So I guess it depends how long your list is.
Not even close. Usyk jumped thirty pounds to compete as a HW after an ATG career at CW. He then makes the british adonis look like a rank and file amateur, a muscle bound dolt. No, hope all you want if it helps you sleep at night but an ATG your boy Joshua is not.
Ruiz is no good, and Takam is a gatekeeper. Pulev wasn't that good either although better than Chisora i guess. The resume is not as good as it looks on paper. Lewis had a far superior resume.
