Stop the Lewis/Rahman comparisons now!!!!

Lewis Rahman wasn't in America. It was in South Africa.

Lewis wasn't just clipped with a lucky shot. He was being beaten up by Rahman who looked fresher, fitter and far more focussed.

He may have said he wasn't but Lewis was clearly looking past Rahman. All the talk at the time was about Tyson and Rahman was seen as worse than the likes of Tua and Grant who Lewis had dealt with easily.

It's not an excuse. Ruiz did great and Joshua was terrible. But the comparison stands.

 

I remember saying a while back that the heavyweight to beat Joshua will be a small one with fast hands, I made the comparison that the 2003 version of James Toney that beat Holyfield would KO Joshua, I got slated for it at the time ............Never count out the short fat dude !

 

It's a reasonable comparison. You just don't like it because Lewis is an all time great and it doesn't suit your agenda that Joshua is some dismal Audley level hype job.

 

Why get so mad at just a comparison? It is similar to the Rahman fight. Not exactly the same but similar.

 

How is Price/Thompson a more accurate comparison?

That was a one punch knockout? Unless you mean the 2nd fight?

 

Of course it's similar. Massive favourite to win fight loses to overlooked opponent whilst possibly distracted by alternative name in an unfamiliar environment. I remember watching the Lewis Rahman fight and assuming Lennox would just batter him, and you could tell really early that he wasn't right. The notion that Rahman got lucky with a fluke shot is nonsense. The only element of luck he had was his opponent not taking him seriously.

I said before this fight that boxing is odd in that you're never allowed an off night. Joshua had one. He suddenly hasn't changed from the guy who easily beat Parker, Povetkin and so on into a guy who should be compared with David Price.

 

I think they are different. The Lewis fight was fought in SA at something crazy like 1,500m above sea level. Lewis did minimal training and preparation for the altitude and you could see that in how early he gassed. He got complacent and it was a freak result

Joshua last night suffered some sort of mental breakdown in the ring that I’m sure we will learn a bit more about in the coming weeks. You can see it in how the relationship with McCracken looked strained and AJ’s dad went nuts after the fight, clearly something was wrong with AJ. I think this loss will have more of a lasting impact on AJ than the Rahman defeat had on Lewis

 

I don't believe there's much comparison tbh.

Lewis didn't prepare properly, didn't climatise to the high altitude in SA like Rahman did, came in overconfident and underestimated his opponent but he was still up on the cards before getting iced by a wonder shot.

AJ did prepare properly, seemingly did not underestimate his opponent but he looked clueless in there, just couldn't deal with an opponent who took the centre of the ring and had good timing and technique, got knocked down four times and was down on the scorecards.

 

Here’s my inevitably unpopular opinion on this...Joshua was done in the 3rd with one shot that bingo’d him on his feet. From that moment he was done and out on his feet. He could not recover from that single shot. He got his head boxed off till round 7 purely because of that big shot in the 3rd. The lights were on but nobody was home. He desperately tried to regain his senses and could not sufficiently defend himself from round 3.

It was fighters instinct that kept him going on but in terms of cognition he was vacant due to the big shot. He desperately tried to hang on & regain his senses but he was vulnerable and I believe if he was a Little, a Price, a Dave Allen or whoever it would have been waved off in the 3rd. Because of who he is, the big star, the huge money pig for the TV execs, sponsors etc etc he was left in there as a pretty much defenceless fighter to take a beating. I know people want these conclusive finishes before a fight is waved off, but as boxing fans we know that a fighter doesn’t have to be starfished Breazeale style for a fight to be over. Whether he’s asleep on the canvas or asleep on his feet the outcome is the same.

 

Not how I saw it at all, thought he was regaining control until he got greedy again in the 6th and got caught again then decided to play macho with his hands down getting punched in the head.

 

Like I said bud, it’s probably an unpopular opinion it strangely reminded me of Froch v Groves 1. A fighter bingo’d on his feet desperately trying to regain his cognitive functions and fighting on pure instinct.