41 year old Wlad was a big puncher but he hadn't stopped anyone in 2.5 years. 39 year old Povetkin could be dangerous but he was in the midst of a six fight streak with only one stoppage win and that was Price. Whyte had a big left hook but he never stopped anyone of note besides Chisora in the rematch. Povetkin and Whyte have KO ratios of just above 60% when you consider losses. Whyte's will fall further if he fights anyone with a pulse. Dubois was the first in form unambiguous big puncher Joshua fought in his career (87.5% KO ratio, just stopped Miller and Hrgovic) and we saw the results. 2018 Wilder would have probably KO'd Joshua, hence Hearn and co. ducked it and span narratives for the gullible.
Povetkin went on to stop a 5 five fighter In Whyte after the AJ fight. Povetkin has history of stopping history of KOs such Duhaupas (made easy work of and didn't get his face busted like Wilder did against him), Perez, Takam, Byrd even etc. Whyte sKOed Chisora who proved throughout his career had a solid chin. Whyte also dropped Parker. It's been well reported that Wilder ducked AJ offer on multiple occasions. Including Wilder admitting to one instance of the ducking on a interview and his manager Finkel admitting to another time that Wilder ducked AJ. Whilst your boy Wilder just Koed tin cans and got b at by the only 3 proven world level opponents he fought during his career.
I know Povetkin KO'd Whyte, which is why I said he could be dangerous. Though Fury also KO'd Whyte with a glancing shot. But it's a fact that 39 year old Povetkin was on a six fight streak with just one stoppage (Price). It's also a fact that Povetkin failed to KO many mediocre opponents when he was much younger, such as Firtha over 10 who Wilder stopped brutally inside 4. I mentioned Whyte's KO of Chisora. Fact remains that he KO'd no one else worth a damn. Wach, Allen, Helenius, Franklin etc. all went the distance with ease. Not to mention the best guys Whyte officially beat. Joshua is a bigger hypejob than I thought he was, something that is dawning on all of us. The first young big puncher "the best Joshua we've ever seen" faces and he's dropped 4 times before being sparked in 5. "It's been well reported that Wilder ducked AJ" It's been well spun by Hearn and his lickspittles yes, just as they span the narrative that an unknown Cuban ducked a big money fight with protected A-side Joshua in 2017. But both Hearn and AJ have admitted that Wilder was an ultra high risk fight and we just saw why.
Even on Saturday whilst losing he was still cringeworthy with his arrogance. Sticking his tongue out, showing ddd to his stool and talking to his corner during the clinch. It’s bad enough doing all that when you’re winning but when you’ve lost every round and been put over 4 times it’s ridiculous.
I think the downfall has been hearns fault. But in fairness as a promoter hes done an unbelievable job. The problem with it is the pressure of trying to live up to it ended up too much because he was never as good as hearn sold him as in the first place. Joshua spent a lot of his time trying to improve constantly. For me he was trying to improve in order to live up to it...and ended up worse than what he could have been because of it. At some point the constantly learning thing....ended up taking away the time that could have been used playing to his strengths. I think another thing is he was wanting to become technical because he was trying to win the game without paying the price you probably need to pay to become great if you dont have elite technical ability. Tough hard physical camps/sparring fights etc. Look at dubois under don charles. Charles isnt really a technical guy. He just pretty much takes his fighters and gets them ready for a battle. Meanwhile joshuas trying to learn how to be like usyk at 32 years old.
You know you're struggling when you have to mention Povetkin's win over Duhaupas who as called in on like one or two days' notice and didn't even have proper footwear, had to wear another bloke's running shoes. Mental. Let's see your heavyweight ranking that Beale keeps going on about. Where is it?
Probably need a stepladder with Hearn's huge height advantage. At last others can see through this serial liar.
I think all fighters would rather fail in living up to their over promotion (which is a promoters job) and earn way more than their talent should reward , than the other way round. He was never going to be a generational great in terms of his talent/ability but he did change the game with his marketability, overall a very successful career in terms of achievements and earnings and most people did have him down as dealing with DD with relative ease before the fight. If anyone bought into the GOAT type promotion of AJ then they probably also believed stuff for eg the over hype and promotion of the recent Edwards v Essomba fight on C5, saying what a great fight it was and huge viewing figures etc , just take it all with a large pinch of salt as you would with a double glazing salesman or the plumber that comes round and puffs his cheeks while pricing up your job, they are all salesman at the end of the day out to maximise any potential no matter how large or small.
It's not hearns job to make him a better boxer, it's his job to promote him and make him loadsa money. You hire trainers to make the better fighter, usually opponents are decided by all three of the fighter, the coach and the promotor