Top 5 AJ wins

This list is probably accurate, and that's a shocking thing.

1. Wladimir Klitschko - 41, last fight
2. Joseph Parker - only 'aged well' after he beat near-40 Wilder and post-40 Zhang while nearly getting KO'd. Also Chisora almost beat him before he became 'elite' all over again.
3. Alexander Povetkin - almost 40, chin was gone.
4. Dillian Whyte - utterly shot Povetkin destroyed him and even Fury one-punched him! Who else has Fury one-punched? Even Cunningham took a sequence of big hits and was out on his feet before the last shot.
5. Andy Ruiz Jr - is even more hyped than AJ. He has beaten no prime top HW except AJ! The myth of him being a great fighter was created by Matchroom. Shot Arreola dropped him.

His resume is utterly manufactured. Yes you have to be good to beat Wlad and Povetkin even on their last legs (not the second Whyte fight where Povetkin was Covid-ed), but every fight was calculated to give him every advantage.

For people who say it wasn't AJ's fault he only ran into Wlad/Povetkin/Pulev when they were about 40 and depleted, AJ had many chances to fight Fury and Wilder when they were in their primes or near enough and never took the fights because the fights were too risky. This became very obvious when AJ was on the downward after losing to Usyk and those Fury/Wilder fights were absolutely there for the taking, but without his advantages and momentum he ducked them to 'rebuild', and his rebuild was longer than Fury's comeback from 400lb AWOL.

 

Anthony Joshua's best five wins ...

1. Wlad Klitschko ... All-time classic heavyweight fight. Both guys down. Joshua scores a convincing KO. No doubt, number one.

2. Francis Ngannou ... Great KO. Joshua dominated (when people weren't sure he would). All boxing fans breathed a sigh of relief after the Ngannou-Fury near debacle. A statement win by Joshua and maybe the sport, as well.

3. Dillian Whyte ... Again, another convincing KO by Joshua after getting rocked early. Both guys were on the rise. Both were undefeated. Another exciting win. Thoroughly enjoyable.

4. Alexander Povetkin ... Povetkin had been humiliated in a previous title fight against Wlad. Got caught juicing before all his fights in 2016. And was badly hurt and staggered by Price the fight before, but Joshua still wiped Povetkin out with little to no problem. That's what a dominant champ does. He takes care of the phoneys. And that's what Povetkin was ... during his later, second "PED" career.

5. Kubrat Pulev ... Pulev, another guy who had been blown out by Wlad in an earlier title challenge, gets the nod here because Joshua so thoroughly beat him up. And the knockout was sweet. No questions here.


I left off Joseph Parker because the fight was terrible. Parker is another guy who looked finished against Joyce and Massey ... only to get life "breathed" into him (like Povetkin) by a new "trainer" with new "diets" ... and now his name looks like a bigger win.

But Joshua didn't fight the "new and improved" Parker of today. Joshua fought the doughy Parker coming off a razor-thin decisions over Andy Ruiz and HUGHIE Fury, both at home. And the Joshua-Parker fight was a certified stinker. No one remembers anything that happened except for the round when Parker finally landed something, and Joshua called "time" ... and the homer ref gave it to him. It was so bad, nobody wanted to see a rematch until Joshua started losing regularly and Parker started "magically" got a second wind in his career with a new "dietician." Good name, but truly boring fight.

And the Andy Ruiz win by Joshua was a fight nobody wants to see again. How many times has anyone watched that? Again, good name, bad fight.

But Joshua's wins against Klitschko, Ngannou, Whyte, Povetkin and Pulev would all fit nicely on a highlight reel. (As would his KO win over Helenius, which I'd probably put #6, because it was an exciting fight and great KO win, too.)

 

You're leaving out the $50 million offer Wilder's team made to Joshua (when Hearn was offering Wilder $5 million), which Joshua declined ...

You're leaving off the fact that any fight with Joshua was off the table in 2019 because Joshua lost to Ruiz ...

You're leaving off the fact that Joshua could've fought Wilder in 2023 when he fought Franklin, Helenius and Wallin ...

In fact Joshua said on camera he'd fight Wilder next after his fights with Franklin and Helenius ... only to continue to push the Wilder fight back (as Wilder sat idle) because Joshua's team didn't think he was ready for a "shot" Wilder and Joshua needed more time.

Whatever. It is what it is. They didn't fight. One year you can blame one guy. The next year you can blame the other. It has happened before in boxing history with other names who should've fought. It'll happen again.

 

DAZN didn't offer Wilder a hundred million dollars to fight Joshua. They offered him a three-fight deal to fight on their network. Wilder was allowed to fight other people. So was Joshua.

And Joshua wasn't going to fight Wilder immediately if Wilder signed the deal. Joshua was already going to fight Miller ( and then Ruiz) before he ever fought Wilder. And Joshua lost, so Joshua was going to have to rematch him. So it didn't matter whether Wilder signed or not. The fight wasn't happening when Joshua got knocked out. (Or wet the bed, using your term.)

Joshua said he'd fight Wilder in 2023 before all his fights that year ... and then fought three other people instead, while Wilder waited, because Joshua needed more time. You can watch interviews with him all year. It was asked and answered repeatedly, but Joshua kept fighting other people.

For every example of one guy "ducking" ... you can find an example of the other guy doing the same thing.

As far as Joshua fighting Wilder if Joshua beats Dubois, I have no doubt the offer will be made.

Wilder will be 39 years old next month. He's lost three of his last four fights. He's totally shot.

Waiting him out has always been the plan. But they waited too long for it to matter.

 

Disregarding Wallin that is on quite a few lists (no idea why), AJ hasn't had a decent win in about 4 years.

 

Given where he was in his career at the time - just 12 fights in and still green - to become in fight #13 the very 1st person to stop Kingpin after just 2 rounds is quite impressive.

An underrated win given further names and status down the line but as a learning curve and trajectory, an important impressive early win against a very experienced tough as nails fighter.

In terms of learning and progression, this should be #5 on the list.

 

Wasn't particularly impressed with Pulev as an opponent tbh but it's a fair win.

 

The Pulev win was almost 4 years ago. Losses to Usyk are not wins. The win against Wallin is nothing to shout about.

 

Purely based on the ability of the opposition beaten it's something like:

1. 41 Wlad (retired after)

2. 39 Povetkin

3. Whyte

4. Parker (Joshua had a bodyguard referee, paint dry Parker came to pointfight with the scorecards loaded against him)

5. 284 lbs Ruiz (big Saudi ring)

One should bear in mind that Joshua was the clear A-side in all of these and has only truly fought away from home once, in a fight he lost.

I like this order because Wlad beat Povetkin, Povetkin beat Whyte, Whyte beat Parker and Parker beat Ruiz.

 

Interesting that you left out Wallin despite Wallin having all the above advantages over Joshua.