Joshua's punching power is overrated

Joshua has very good power but not awesome power, after he shook Dubois up a bit, Dubois countered and knocked him... out...

 

Yegor Golub, Anthony Joshua's current trainer, gave the following ratings to various aspects of Anthony Joshua 6 days ago in a serious podcast interview with a Ukrainian boxing YouTuber:
on a 10-point scale

Footwork - 6.5
Fighting IQ - 7.5
Defensive skills - 4
Jab - 7
Jaw strength 5
Psychology 7
Punch power 25 out of 10 (sparring partners from the camp in helmets complained of headaches after jabs) "ballistic missile, not punch"

so I think his impact power may even be underestimated

 

If that’s true then that guy is absolutely clueless. Joshua’s fight IQ is shocking, absolutely terrible. Without someone telling him what to do he looks lost. The only reason he would get a 7.5 would be if he was being scored out of 100

 

Not sure where you're seeing people say he hits as hard as Wilder. Anybody with a working brain knows that's not true. Fighters like Wilder, Zhang, Tyson, they are freaks of nature. Particularly Wilder. I've seen him knock guys out cold in one shot, without even connecting properly. It's almost supernatural.

I don't think his punching power is overrated. Joshua is definitely a hard-punching heavyweight, he hits harder than most. But I'd say he's in the tier just below the top.

 

Depends on how high it is actually rated. Compared to his contemporaries he is one of the most powerful. Compared to klitschko and lewis he is not.

But power depends on many parameters...

Joshua has
Weight behind the punches
His typical punch already has power

He does not seem to have
Elite speed on his punches
Commitment to his punches (in most cases)
Willingness to find the Timing to deliver the perfect punch in face of danger

I think his average punch is among the strongest of his contemporaries, but he lacks in boxing finesse compared to the elite. He has solid technique and a great body, even though I think he has too much muscle mass and too little flexibility in his body.

His lack of finesse shows compared to guys like klitschko and lewis, when those can control a fight with an educated jab and attack without much fear of counters and thus commit to their attacks, because of their education, while joshua can not.
Wilder doesn't have this education either, but he has had a different mentality from Joshua's before he lost it. And with ortiz he really had to use this mentality.

At the time around the klitschko fight, joshua had this catch-and-shoot tactic. He should have built on that in my eyes. He has below average stamina (apart from weirdly the 2. Usyk fight...) and that would have helped him to preserve it while pressuring his opponent.

 

I might be doing a revisionist history here, but I honestly don't recall Ruiz being seen as a big puncher before the Joshua T/KO. Hell, his overall KO percentage is significantly lower than Joshua´s.

 

He's talking about Daniel Dubois but this proves his point even more

 

Good find. I find this thread kinda silly. AJ has tremendous power. Using this 10-point scale I would say he is at a 9.

 

I don’t think people overrate his power now. But I remember years back people were arguing he hit as hard or harder than Wilder which was insane to me. Wilder has legit slept people with one shot. Fighters getting hit with a shot and going into a seizure like state or getting carried out on a stretcher. Joshua hasn’t done anything like that. He can crack though. He’s definitely a very good puncher.

 

Hold on a second....Ngannou want to say something to add to this conversation.... wait... wait.... we'll come back to him later, he is still waking up

 

AJ has many deficiencies and weaknesses but punching power isn’t one of them. Also, AJ was not fed a lot of handpicked Glass Jawed opponents like for example Wilder was. AJ was not coddled on the way up either. Again, plenty of material to **** on AJ about but this isn’t it.

 

Spot on! He hasn't stopped iron-chinned devils like Szpilka, Washington and Stiverne, so let's not mention him in the same breath as Wilder.

 

Dude, the whole world saw he beat Fury. Regardless, impugning Joshua's power based on who he beat compared to who Wilder beat is ridiculous.