It’s actually beginning to put me off him, yes it’s a positive mentality after a defeat but he takes that mentality into the ring with him, if he loses or doesn’t do well it’s fine because he’ll learn something. That’s the mentality you have for sparring, not for the actual night of the fight. His prime is long gone IMO, he peaked from 2016-2018, he doesn’t look anywhere near as fast or powerful anymore, his killer instinct and confidence have almost completely evaporated at this point.
I'm fed up of him talking in clichés and riddles. You can never get a straight answer out of the guy. It's like he thinks we all want and need to hear his unnecessarily deep, irrelevant and nonsensical thoughts.
Why would he shy away from trying to write the wrong in a rematch that serves to land him millions + an opportunity to get his belts back.... to instead fight someone like Hrgovic? That would make no sense. He's no longer the unified champion but he does still have an opportunity to become a 3 time world champion in his very next fight.... obviously there are many things he would need to correct / do differently but he would be mad to pass that up.
Going straight in with Usyk seems a mistake to me- as it is for Wilder to go straight back in with Fury. If you're making big style changes then that needs to settle in to your muscle memory and that doesn't happen only in the gym. Both of them should have taken tune up fights to groove in the changes they are making. Too much is made of keeping fight plans secret- they either work or they don't. Fury tells opponents exactly what he's going to do, for instance.
Hearn talking about '3 time heavyweight champion' like it's a better achievement than being 1 time and not losing the belts in the first place. Joshua talking about it being part of the journey and the legacy. Spinning hell.
Can someone explain how Hearn gets to call the shots regarding rematch venue? Surely Usyk has more influence than silver spoon Eddie.
In fairness to AJ, whether you like him or not, he owns up and takes defeat like a man. As he did for Ruiz, he's again come out and said he was beaten by the better man. No bull**** excuses that his water was spiked, his ring attire was to heavy or Usyk put nuclear bombs in his gloves.
When he lost to Ruiz him and Hearn were talking about a health issue but wouldn't say what it was because they 'didn't want to make excuses'. Why mention it then.
There needs to be rules around rematches. You can have one but you don't get control of it. You're not the champ any more.
I don’t like the idea of AJ having a permanent safety net of a rematch clause every fight tbh. To become the champ you don’t just have to beat AJ, you have to beat him twice, I think that’s wrong tbh
It’s not just AJ it’s every champion and every fighter with a name. Warrington vs Lara (I think) there was one. No belts on the line. Arthur v Yarde - a British level fight where the challenger had a rematch clause. Utterly bizarre.
