Prime Joshua (2016 - 2018) is something else, the baddest man on the planet. Obviously he'll make it into the HOF - first ballot though?
Expect to catch some bait with this as it's kick AJ while he's down week. But I don't think anyone with a brain cell can argue that he has the best "body of work" in the HW division. Fury has the best 2 names, no arguments there, but when your looking at who has the deepest resume of solid wins then it's hard to look past AJ. Wlad Whyte Ruiz Parker Povetkin Takam Pulev Breazeale Martin And of course Gary Cornish
Best win - old, inactive, retiring Klitschko coming off a loss (home) Next best win - Parker in a stinker or Povetkin who was old and had just been dropped by a British level boxer in Price The rest - Martin, Molina, Takam, Breazeale, Pulev, Whyte. (all at home) The biggest skid mark in the history of boxing - Rice Pudding Jr (only fight in the US) Schooled twice by Usyk. Not even close. Pathetic record.
Within the UK yes absolutely, he had a good career and made a big impact on the sports scene there. In the overall boxing world? no.
Also his CV is poor. AJ is getting kicked when he's down, which is happening fairly often these days. He is in the Ingo Johansson level of HW champs. Top 25 or 30.
AJ has been a very good top 5 HW during his time as a pro, but he's not an ATG heavyweight. If he were to come back now and beat Wilder and Fury, then he might be considered great.
No he isn't. He's a stop gap who filled the vacancy by Fury when he had drug problems. Maybe if Fury and Usyk both retire he can outlast them and become 3 time champ, but an ATG right now, he is not.
Joshua is currently 5-2 in bouts against ring-rated opposition (?). One of those 5 gained their ring-rating, courtesy of Joshua letting himself get beat up by a late sub, in front of a crowd at MSG. Of the other 4 victories - Wlad K is probably his best win, but it was WK's last bout, at age 41, coming off a loss and having been out of the ring for over a year. A great fight to watch, but not big on credit when it comes to all-time ratings. Since that win, in 2017, he and his team have, for whatever reason, failed to make a fight with either Fury or Wilder - or rematch Whyte (not especially necessary, but there was an opportunity, I think, to punctuate his place in the current crop with another emphatic victory over the improved Whyte). In respect to the other major Heavy of the division (Usyk), he has now been beaten him twice, comprehensively. That said - Joshua has a reasonable number of names on his ledger. He has looked very effective against a fair class of opposition and he was able to recapture the world title he lost to Ruiz Jr. Subject to whatever he does next, he may well find himself being rated somewhere in the Top-40/35.
