Joshua haters: who should the man have fought?

I don't know. But the facts are what they are. He turned down the offer without giving any reasonable reason.

 

Yeah, it's weird. A guy who fought for a belt in only his 16th pro fight, after a short amateur career, and who has looked to face the best around since. No excuses after his losses. Just what boxing has been missing and still all this derision. Don't get it personally.

 

Ustinov (who was beaten by Charr in his next fight and had already been comprehensively outboxed and KO'd by Pulev) was hardly a dangerous opponent for Ortiz and he'd have got no credit for beating him. Talks broke down for reasons that none of us are really privy to and Ortiz would have likely been overlooked in favour of AJ-Klitschko anyway. Sanctioning bodies can make it very difficult when they want to, which has long been the pro-Whyte critique of the WBC.

Also, if the drug testing agencies are straight down the line then the critique of Wilder's opposition becomes a lot weaker as he was ready to fight an active, prime-ish Povetkin in 2016 in Russia before Povetkin failed a drug test; a fight that was more dangerous on paper than any in AJ's career barring Usyk home/A-side.

If AJ was to be tied up fighting Breazeale and Molina as a condition of fighting Martin and Hearn/AJ agreed to that, this is essentially a duck of dangerous opponents in the division. Hearn/AJ have huge negotiating power; I don't believe they were strongarmed into been tied up for two additional fights against C-level opponents. Ortiz was obviously a massive danger for AJ with little reward, so predictably AJ didn't fight him.

Why did Hearn sign Ortiz? Why did he sign Bivol? Usyk? Hrgovic? It's clear to me why he did it: sit them on the sidelines or shunt them off fighting irrelevant opposition, ignore them for as long as possible and try to get them to lose if possible. The aging Ortiz would have likely been waiting a very long time for his shot at AJ if he ever got it, so he jumped ship. He signed with PBC and got his first title shot within a year and after a tune up, then a second title shot after three fights in 16 months.

The best opponents AJ could have faced post-Martin home/A-side are not Breazeale home/A-side, Molina home/A-side, Pulev/Takam home/A-side, Parker home/A-side or Miller/Ruiz away/A-side. Some of the stronger opponents he could have faced included Ortiz, Wilder and Fury, though of course the Matchroom narrative is that every genuine threat to AJ is afraid of AJ. AJ did fight faded versions of Wlad and Povetkin with the deck stacked in his favour but the first prime-ish A-level opponent he faced (despite a lot of contractual wrangling by Hearn: conspicuously absent when he faced a finished Pulev) he lost to (even with the deck stacked in his favour) having already lost to a B/C level opponent in Ruiz.

 

I just looked it up. It was a three-fight deal, to sign with DAZN.

 

I know. The fight he was already scheduled to have (Breazeale) and two with Joshua.

 

He will be remembered as a good fighter.

 

Yeah, why dislike him just because Usyk and Fury are better (which would be the verdict right now, even if that could of course change)?

Give me a fighter that takes on challenges that sometimes are too much ahead of someone more talented that won't challenge himself fully every day.

 

I think some of the anti-AJ feeling stems from the stupid hype he was getting 4 or 5 years ago. The media were pushing him too much. People who know boxing resented the way he was being overrated, to various degrees. But since he lost, he's been presented more reasonably by his backers, for the most part.

 

In that case a good fighter that left few questions about his quality unanswered.

Always nice not have to hear these "if only he was in shape", "if only he had wanted to prove himself against so and so"

 

I guess certain people were going to lose out, and convinced Wilder to reject the deal.
He strikes me as a particularly un-intelligent man now.

 

Could be. But in the end he is responsible for the choices he makes.

 

What if he goes on to KO Andy Ruiz? Or better yet, AJ?

 

Hes anything but overrated nowadays, in fact there's plenty of people who put him outside the top 5 now and believe he's a bottler who has absolutely no chance in the rematch and loses any possible future fights against Fury or Wilder.

I actually don't care whether he wins or loses from here on in as long as he continues taking the fights presented to him. If he gets the old fire back (far from certain) he can still be involved in some great match ups and still be very relevant in the HW division.