The question - Is Anthony Joshua Overrated ?

It's not an excuse. It's a fact that I found out from an AJ interview lol. He mentioned Ruiz had over a 100 amateur fights and won a 100 of them. Im just stating a fact, Im not trying to make a point or an excuse.

 

In a word: Yes.

It's not like he got KO'd by a single shot he didn't see coming, which can happen to any boxer and especially a HW. He got outboxed by a fighter who was prepared to punch with him:

1. Power: Overrated... Ruiz got up
2. Speed: Overrated... A fat boy was quicker
3. Chin: Overrated... He never recovered from the first KD
4. Stamina and fitness: Overrated... He's athletic but not fit for purpose (see point 3.)
5. Heart and warrior spirit: Overrated.... Essentially, although exhausted he gave up
6. Ring IQ: Overrated... he had no idea how to deal with a fighter prepared to trade

Now I'm NOT saying he doesn't have power, some speed, a decent chin, good fitness, a warrior spirit or decent ring craft. He has all these just not to the degree hype has suggested. But some people on here who jibber on about him being the second coming need to take a reality check. He's a very good, effective but basic 1-2 boxer...

 

Yeah, Joshua has fought some of the best names in the division, so it's stupid to claim he wasn't deserving of the number one spot till last night. You can argue he was flawed (and those arguments have legs now) but who else deserved to be rated higher than him at the time?

Overrated is not a synonym for exposed.

 

Its not a given Joshua wins the rematch

 

It was part of the given luck

 

Joshua needs to change his style and fight like Klitschko did with Steward in his corner if he wants to win back his titles. But Joshua's jab isn't as good as Klitschko's was.

 

Joshua was jabbing like Price at times last night, gassed like him too...Nervous because of his chin imo

 

Speaking of flaws - Joshuas chin has always been a topic. This was brought to the table when Whyte wobbled him in their fight. Joshua got clipped by Ruiz, the same way he got clipped by Whyte. He forgot that valuable lesson from the Whyte fight.

 

It's not his chin so much as how he reacts when he gets hurt. He mentally shuts down, panics, I don't know what exactly, but he totally freezes up and lets fighters start tagging him at will. That also seems to physically drain him to the point where he's totally unable to continue. It's a massive problem for him, and I'm not sure how it's resolvable, since it seems to be a combination of things inherent in his physical/mental makeup.

 

Not all the time. Against Ruiz he definitely did what you mentioned in your post but against Klitschko, he showed great heart to get off the canvas and fight on.

 

That was partly due to stylistic factors though. Wlad was trying to hit him with one shot, not swarm all over him with combinations. Had Joshua composed himself and boxed the next few rounds he might have got his second wind and KOed Ruiz towards the end, but he seemed very switched off last night. Hesitant and a bit clueless what to do.

 

No, he isn't overrated. He was looking at Wilder and Fury rather than looking at Ruiz. The weigh-in, the press conference, the post weigh-in interview with Sky...I don't know why people didn't bring it up more. I said last night just before Tommy Coyle went into the ring that AJ was overlooking Ruiz, he wasn't there mentally.

Just look at the weigh-in again, and you will see exactly what I meant. Just look at the arrogance in his Sky interview on Friday, 'I won't keep you up late *laughs hard*'. I saw it coming. You never overlook your opponent, doesn't matter how good you are. He thought he could just boss Ruiz, just go in there recklessly, throw out gameplans...

He didn't take Ruiz seriously, and that's the last thing you want to be doing in a sport as brutal as this.

 

rating him after a bad loss is not fair. Rate him at the end of his career which is more fair. Then you can put his resume and all the fights into consideration. Losing is one thing.. But not a terrible thing.

 

I don't think its much of a question, of course he was overrated. He always had big flaws - his lack of head and upper body movement, his sluggish footwork, his predictability etc.

 

You never know how much is overlooking an opponent, bravado to psyche yourself up, and showmanship though. If Joshua wasn't taking Ruiz seriously then he wouldn't have trained hard in the first place. He wasn't reckless or contemptuous of Ruiz in the opening rounds; he just got caught trying to go for the stoppage and paid the price.