The Joshua Poll. Has he lived up to the hype of being the next great heavyweight?

I gave him credit for having his fights negotiated in a fairly straight forward manner, being active and actually taking the Wlad fight. At least he is giving himself a chance at being remembered as someone of note in the history of the division. How many HWs have missed their chances to make meaningful legacy building fights by messing around for years on end.

 

To claim It's definitive that he'll be better, you do. I'm sure everyone thought that Riddick Bowe could only get better after he beat Holyfield for the first time. Yet by the time he was at Joshua's age, he was close to being shot.

Younger Wlad weighed in exactly at 240 lbs when he beat Chagaev in probably his career best performance. He was faster, had a sharper and more accurate jab, a much better check left hook, and his punches were landing on th chin, unlike the one that dropped AJ which landed on the cheekbone.

 

http://www.saddoboxing.com/boxing_images2/wladruslan1.jpg

I'd nominate Chaggy and MaCline as Wlads best performances. But Chaggy was half his size and spent sent the entire fight plodding forward face first. Joshua blows that guy away within 6 rounds . Wlad stopped him on his feet.
That fight doesn't say anything about how he'd cope with Joshua. Chagg wasn't a bum , but he wasn't that great either and he was fresh off his medical failure to rematch Valeuv when Wlad fought him. Wlad should have fought Valeuv instead but he avoided that fight over the course of his career. Valuev was a slower and less skilled version of Joshua

 

Even playing field is hard to gauge. We definitely know how far removed from his prime Wlad was, we don't know how far removed Joshua is.

Joshua might never get better, he might never lose, but it is a dynamic opinion right now, we could in time say prime Joshua beats prime Wlad, or we could say otherwise. Right now I lean towards the latter but I guess time will tell.

 

Its a double standard believe me...i didnt even use klitchko either...that would really bring many on here to a reality check!

Also no one with any credibility thinks Joshua has peaked yet. So you can go look at some comments on here to see who that is.

 

Prime is NOT age...prime is when YOU( the fighter ) is at his best it has NOTHING to do with age specially at HW,bc BIG fighters peak later usually and Joshua has not been pro long enough to claim anything else....go tell Mike Tyson he was at his best at 28 or Lennox Lewis who peaked after early/mid 30's. What about Wlad klitchko who hit his stride when he hooked up with Manny steward? In his 20's Wlad was not the better fighter compared to his 30's was he?

You are also nit picking comments/quotes .clearly he wants to be be a ten year champion.

Also Who are these non top tens in title defenses??? Eric Molina a late Wlad Klitchko replacement...come on now.... lol