Imagine if Anthony Joshua fought the very same opponents as Mike Tyson did in the same order?

I would favor aj over many of tysons opponents. The issue is that he isnt used to fighting 3-4-5x a year and being super busy like tyson was on his way to the title. I think his body would break down even faster than tysons did because he packs so much unnecesary muscle on his frame.

Against tucker, aj likely loses unless he manages to scare tucker into fighting a cautious safety first fight. Aj could win by default on aggression. The extremely frustrating to watch joshua vs parker farce should have answered some questions for how aj could handle a tucker type of opponent, but the horrible referee just left us with more questions.

Tubbs might get koed late, but he had the style to frustrate aj. If tubbs can give a prime bowe problems, anything could happen. Im not confident aj's robotic stiff style would work against a smooth outside fighter with quick hands, even if aj has the power to bail himself out.

The next biggest challenge is a motivated buster douglas. Now, if we take the AJ who showed so much guts and willpower against wladmir and put him in there with tokyo douglas...we've got a hell of a fight on our hands! Id have to seriously think about that one for a bit...cant give an answer.

Lets say aj makes it past all those guys. I dont like his odds against ruddock. The reason is simple: posture. Aj has a high classic guard and fights tall and stiff. He doesnt move his head well, and hes a BIG target. Ruddock actualy beat a guy taller than himself in james smith. Now, obviously aj is a higher calibre opponent than smith, but theyre similar height and weight and ruddock managed to flat line him. The smash generates power UP from the waist and the lead hand. If aj isnt moving his head and lacks upper body speed and defense, he could end up walking right into a smash. Its gonna be coming from outside his field of vision and hes never fought a guy with a powerful left arm before.

Now obviously, joshua is the better fighter overall and ruddock has even worse defense and ring iq, but stylistically, i think im gonna say ajs undefeated streak ends here. Remember, he has to fight ruddock TWICE.

Finally we have a three year layoff and then we have holyfield. I dont feel theres any need to elaborate because even if by some miracle aj overcomes all the aforementioned stylistic nightmares, holyfield would for damn sure end up beating the dog feces out of aj. Aj has yet to prove he is on that level. Maybe if we see him unify with the fury/wilder winner we can get a better idea of how hed do against an ATG.

 

AJ might very well struggle against Tony Tucker !After 10 rounds chasing after Tony ,Joshua might find himself gassing .

 

Joshua's best win is Parker but Joshua wasn't impressive at all he landed only 139 punches by the Compubox.
Who's Parker ? Who has he could beat? The best Parker win was close against Hughie and i can't say
this is a amazing and remarkable win.
Considering these i dare (I'm so brave) to say i think the following Tyson victims were better
than Parker:Berbick,Smith,Thomas,Tucker,Biggs,Holmes,Tubbs,Spinks,Bruno,Carl Williams,Ruddock.
And of course the following Tyson beaters were better than Parker ;Douglas,Holyfield,Lewis.
All in all maybe Joshua can beat better fighter than Parker and after this win i'll try to answer this question.

 

Parker is a guy that won't take risks and is very happy to keep things in 3rd gear. Just like Tucker. Good enough to hang in there but not the guy getting his arm raised over the elite opponents. But he can certainly hang in there and make it to the finish line while not being a highlight reel ko victim.

As to the thread, I think Joshua makes the defenses Tyson did. W/o a whole lot of trouble or digging deep. It's not until a Commander Vander or Lewis matchup that he'd drop a fight. He goes through Douglas and Ruddock.

 

Rather than focusing on each individual fighter, what will trouble him more is the timeline. The frequency in which Tyson fought would be quite the change for Joshua. It would not surprise me if the goes through the list relatively easy and gets KO'd by Frank Bruno.

 

donovan ruddock would cause joshua huge problems

 

I think if Joshua fought the same guys as Tyson, in the same order that TYson did, I believe he might slip up as early as Mitch Green.

Green was fight number 21 for Tyson and the experience of the Tillis fight prepared Tyson for it. That’s what got Tyson through that test.

Because I think Joshua might deal with that version of Tillis better than Tyson did I believe A shorter dancing guy is less of a problem to him than a taller dancing guy. And Tillis against Joshua is just a shorter dancing guy where as to Tyson, Tillis was the first dancing tall guy who came to fight.

For Joshua, Green would be his first dancing tall guy who came to fight and I just don’t think the run of guys Tyson fought before that point could really prepare Joshua for that. Green was 16-1 and had learning loss to a very live Trevor Berbick that really outranks anything that would have been on Joshua’s lodger by then.

People forget Green only lost by MD with Berbick who within 8 months beat Pinklon Thomas, widely regarded as the best heavyweight in the world at that time. That’s how close Green was to the big time when he met Tyson. Sure he messed up after Tyson, but Mitch isn’t fighting Tyson, he’s fighting a young robot called Anthony Joshua instead.

I believe that Joshua is more likely to emulate Tim Witherspoon’s early won over Tillis and that leaves him naked for Green.

Folks forget Mitch Green was a pretty talented prospect at this time. A time when Amateurs had a lot more fights. A four time New York golden glove winner, He also beat a live Jumbo Cummings. It’s a tough fight for Joshua if he’s been feasting on too many easy fights because Mitch was tall and faster than Joshua back then. He ties up fighters well too. If Joshua can’t knock Green out he won’t be winning on points with the pace Green could set.

 

While Green could be awkward for Joshua the most rounds Tyson lost just 1 round on two scorecards and two on the other against Green. I really don't think the Tillis fight was what got Tyson past Green even if it was a great learning experience.

Joshua's 21st was against Parker and i seriously doubt Green would get past him. Green would be a huge underdog. Joshua hit the ground running from very early on and his list of wins at this stage is extremely impressive. On scale of fight number he's been moved notably faster than Tyson at this point. Joshua's beaten a heap of top rated fighters already and collected multiple titles - all before fight 21.

 

Joshua would be favored over all of them.

Let's say he would be a 5:1 favorite for each of Tyson's 10 title fight opponents before Douglas.

The odds of him winning a single fight at random would be 83%.

The odds of winning all ten of those fights would be 16%.

In other words, he most likely would lose the title before facing Douglas.

If you say he's 10:1, he would have a 38% chance.

 

Joshua doesn't beat have Tyson ring experience and isn't anywhere near being as polished a fighter.

Quite a few guys on Tyson's resume would beat Joshua.

Bonecrusher Smith
Buster Douglas
Evander Holyfield
Tony Tucker
Frank Bruno
Lennox Lewis
Razor Ruddock
James Tillis (maybe)
Alex Stewart (maybe)

 

Any fighter that is barely getting to the 5th rd without being totally gassed, and having to depend on his youth and atheletiscim ( he is a very good athlete) to get past some of the worst competition in the history of the heavyweight division. ( skill level of his competition is the worse I've seen, probably worse than the skill level of J Louis, or Marciano's opposition ) I can think of at the least 4 or 5 opponents of prime Tyson that would at least be 50/50 against Joshua, 4 or 5 that Tyson destroyed . Theirs nothing great about Joshua in my opnion, other than his physic. But were not talking about body building but the sport of boxing. Joshua is the king of a dying sport, and is lucky to be fighting in this era of making a ton of money without all the risk faced by great fighters from the past.

 

Tyson losing only one round against Green should not rule out Mitch having no chance against Joshua. Tyson and Joshua are two entirely different fighters.

Tyson had to be a lot better against Green than he was against Tillis, and he was.

Against a guy with a seven inch height advantage and 11 inch reach advantage is more a reflection on how good Tyson was to do it. He beat him with smaller dimensions because of his speed and boxing skill.

If they were both fighting Tyson’s men, in the order that Tyson fought them, the Tillis learning experience could have been bypassed since it would be harder for Tillis, a guy who was knocked out by taller punchers like Page, Bruno, Witherspoon to emulate the same kinds of problems Tyson had with him. In fact in his previous bout another long heavyweight (7-0 Tyrell Biggs) had a far easier time with Tillis than 19-0 Tyson did. Seems to me Tillis depended on being the taller guy in order for his style to work.

This means Green is going to be the first real test from the Tyson bunch.

More than any other champion Joshua really has learned on the job. He may have won a Olympic Gold but his amateur career was very brief. There is even footage of him as a pro asking his trainer “did they do the shoulder roll back then?” after his coach demonstrated it for him after He explained to AJ all the old champions used to do it. He did not know.

In his actual career the opponent selection so far has met a gradual progression of men that favour his own style. Fast slippery type boxers as tall as he is have been available and bypassed so far. No Tony Thompson, Tyson Fury, No Hughey Fury type fighters have been selected just yet. Perhaps men he can beat but would be considered difficult.

The best Joshua has faced was 42 year old Klitschko and 39 year old Povetkin. Perhaps the best around but not necessarily at the right side of the hill. Even now Joshua might find a Mitch Green type fighter more problematic than those two old boys.

 

It indeed would have been a miracle for him to beat that version of Holyfield.