Just watched Joshua fight. I don't get the criticism

He looked scared/nervous

He fought scared/nervous

He failed to finish him in round 3 missing most of his shots

He gassed at points during the fight and pulled a goofy face as is typical of him.

He didn't fight inside at all (Hurr durr AJ will beat up Fury inside, no he won't)

He got leaned on by the smaller Pulev because he was so fearful when Pulev got close that he had to resort to cowering down when he could easily throw his own shots or clinch. He still hasn't mastered the clinch or smothering on the inside properly. I facepalmed when this happened twice during the fight. Like really bro?

He didn't establish his jab as well as he should of.

OH AND WORST OF ALL, he tried to claim he showed a Holmes/Shavers mish mash of ability against Pulev. LOOOOL.

Who has this man beat in what fashion to show he has the special gypsy magic Fury has?

If you are useless inside and can't establish an easy all night long jab and some easy not laboured lateral movement against Pulev/Ruiz how the hell are you going to handle Fury? You aren't...and you know you aren't.

Good luck finding sparring for Tyson. Tyson will find PLENTY of bodybuilders to replicate AJ.

He's regressed in my eyes. His first handful of rounds against Wlad before he blew his load were the best he's boxed. 4 years ago?

He should bulk back up to 254 and run at Fury for 2 rounds & make it a fire fight. Then quit on his stool before he drowns in the deep end.

 

Haters gonna hate.

He looked fine, but showed nothing at all to concern Fury.

 

He looked fine. He didn't under-perform.
But he doesn't look like he's improved at all from the first Ruiz fight.

I expected him to get old Pulev out of there easily, inside 3 rounds.
He almost did, so can't really criticise him too much for taking 9 rounds.

Beating old Pulev showed us nothing we didn't already know.
Yeah, he can KO old men, spectacularly.
Good for him, he did what he needed to do.

 

I thought he fought fine and, yes, he'd be the underdog against Fury.

Joshua is an excellent world class fighter. He isn't as epic as some of his supporters believed a couple years ago, but he's really good and is good for the division, too.

 

Yeah, he did it so poorly that Pulev had to literally run from him and should have been DQ:d for it.

 

Wlad turned his back on Fury twice, headbutted him and Fury got a point deducted

lol

 

Yeah, pretty much. He probably has to be much more aggressive against Fury, if Tyson doesn't decide to take the fight to him. I don't think he will, but I didn't think that last time either and was proved well wrong.

But all in all, he fought Pulev in a smart manner. Why press things and risk a huge showdown on the way when you're winning anyway?

 

What the **** has this anything to do with Wlad-Fury?

 

At least try and make people believe your gimmick

 

There wasn't much to criticise. AJ could have been more aggressive, but why really? To make this effing forum happy? It would have found some way to criticise anyway. This was just a step towards a much more important fight, no need to take unnecessary risks.

 

I won't open a new topic for this one but something is lacking in Joshua. Pulev left the ring with confidence despite the loss, Joshua has many questions to answer. He ain't the warrior, Pulev got easy into his head 2 in the weigh in, even if he barely speaks some English. Pulev is the warrior. He lost, being the worse boxer, but the bigger man or animal.

After the fight Joshua was annoyed by the questions about the Fury fight, at some point he said: "... I know who I am..."
Ehm, I think he does not know who he is. Is he Ali with that elegant footwork, is he Usyk/Lomachenko with that up/down lead hand, is he Mike Tyson with that upper cut? Is he a family man? An athlete? A brand? Who is he? He's working more on implementing other fighter's moves than working on his own style.

I think it's something mental, motivational, psychological that he can't figure out yet. Impressive transformation that he made over the last few fights, but I think Fury will crush him the same way he did with Wilder, partly due to his stronger character/personality.

Maybe it's time for a new trainer?

 

As for the comparisons with Wlad-Pulev: Yes, yes, absolutely, that was a younger Pulev against an old Wlad, but if not for Pulev's odd decision to turn around and run and the ref's equally strange not to DQ him for it, AJ would have finished him sooner and without being rocked by a jab on the way.