He actually believed he was better than Lennox, he said so in this video. He believed the hype about beating the great Charles Martin and reckoned his title reign surpassed Lewis due to his unwillingness to throw versus Parker, his referee assisted stoppage of Takam and a near defeat against a 41 year old wlad. Not to mention wrong tactics versus Povetkin. This content is protected
Imagine if he fought Dempsey back in Dempsey's era . This content is protected would be more brutal than this if he actually had the heart of Willard.
As Ruiz was Knocking Joshua around like a Rag Doll I saw Frank Bruno flashbacks from my vintage boxing dvd collection!! lol
I notice how Joshua went from Invincible Superman to "a 50 year old Butterbean would Destroy Joshua!" on this forum!! lol
This thread made me laugh, "Joshua believed the hype", I mean yeah, it's his own hype. What, should he have been like "I'm a pathetic hypejob, hopefully I don't get exposed"?
I believe you are right to an extent. AJ did get overconfident but all this stuff about him being a bum and a can are ridiculous. It really highlights how shallow and fickle some boxing "fans" really can be. Has it really got to this point that they want the sport to be so uncompetitive that one loss and you are nothing?
To be honest, Lewis' first reign was awful. He took the title from the trash can - it's even worse than beating Charles Martin LOL. Then he defended it against shot Tony Tucker, who clearly lost two fights to cruiserweight Orlin Norris, after that he defended his title against bum named Phil Jackson, who was an Eric Molina level fighter. The only good prime opponent whom Lewis beat in his first reign was Frank Bruno and he struggled badly in that fight. Oh, and don't forget that Lewis was KO'ed by Oliver McCall much quicker than Joshua was KO'ed by Andy Ruiz. Shot Wlad >>>> shot Tucker, Parker is probably better than Bruno, shot Povetkin is millions times better than any version of Phil Jackson, Charles Martin is better than trash can. So no, Joshua's reign wasn't any worse than Lennox's first reign. But Lennox proved he is a great fighter coming back from crushing defeat for MUCH more impressive reign. Can AJ improve as much as Lennox did? I doubt it. He can improve certian technical things but he will never have Lewis reflexes and fluidity.
Defeat has hopefully taught him the real meaning of humble. He used the word a lot but didn't really get what it meant. True humility will help him address rather than ignore his flaws, then he might just fulfill his potential. He compares himself to Lewis, well now's his chance to put that theory into practice and come back after defeat better than he was before. Harder to do than say, though...
Good post. Can't really blame Lewis for the trash can belt though, just like you can't blame AJ for winning the title from a boxer who belonged in one....
