It's an interesting fight between two highly rated HWs, one of whom is former two-time champion with deep resume. But let's be real - the winner of this match shouldn't be considered a world champion since Usyk decisively beat both recently and is still active.
I think everyone agrees with that. It frees up a belt to allow mandatory fights though. Maybe someone beats the winner and can earn their fight with Usyk
Then why did Joshua beat Ngannou impressively, while your man "Belly" Fury struggled, got knocked down and deservedly lost? This content is protected This content is protected
Because Fury had a bad night against a then unknown opponent, and AJ had the advantage of hindsight to prepare for his fight. Though Fury's resume isn't the greatest out there you can't say he's ever been gifted belts like AJ has.
Joshua should win this. He is quicker than Hrgovic, got better footwork, he is more explosive boxer and probably got better punching power. Expirience much better than Filip and than Dubois also. But... On paper Hrgovic imo was big favorite with Daniel and we know how fight go. Daniel change. No idea how they create this dude from last 2 fights from this shy kid but they did great job. End of the day he was catch often with big shots by Filip and same will be with Anthony. But dont see him catch soo easy AJ. Also dont think anybody let him punch AJ more than 20 times with headbut. I see 2 most realistic scenario. In both I see Joshua winning but one in easy way in first 6 rounds and another after hard fight with problems on the way. But I got bad luck last time soo Im not sure anything now. Wish You all good day.
Joshua takes another step up in class and Dubois should be a really good gauge to see if Joshua has truly improved or not. Great matchup between two top 10 contenders. Also on the card: Mark Chamberlain vs Josh Padley Joshua Buatsi vs Willy Hutchinson Anthony Cacace vs Josh Warrington Tyler Denny vs Hamzah Sheeraz Liam Smith vs Josh Kelly This is a fantastic card!
That's all well and good, but it's not relevant to my point. Fury won his belts in his opponents back yards ending the reign of long time champions. AJ sits and waits for Eddie to buy him his belts.
Ok Joshua got a gift with Martin but he was ranked and Martin was the champion but It was fury who gave Joshua his title opportunity because he was caught cheating and then vacated his belts and used his mental health as an excuse, if fury didn’t cheat then Joshua wouldn’t have got his chance.
Well Joshua still had to win the fights but he was quite lucky I suppose: IBF paper champion, Charles Martin WBO paper champion, Joseph Parker
Fury struggles, gets dropped (given 23 secs to recover also), beaten up thereafter and cops a controversial 10 round SD over a pro debutant. AJ starches that same opponent in < 2 rounds YET a certain contingent of Fury fans can still find themselves making excuses for Tyson in order to divorce themselves from the stark contrast between results against a common opponent. Amazing.
