What does Anthony Joshua need to do to be named greatest heavyweight of all time?

Ever hear of m ali j frazier g foreman area ?

 

People like to dismiss the current hw division but at the same time laud the current cw as stacked. If that was actually the case then Usyk, Gassiev et al wouldn't be wasting time and eschewing potential fortunes and would go up and challenge Joshua & co. Don't get me wrong, cruiserweight is indeed stacked but to me heavyweight looks healthy as it is and there are plenty interesting fights to be made between the titlists/other top guys.

As for Joshua, I don't think anything he can achieve will be enough for certain boxing nostalgics and those who have previously dismissed his talents (humans don't tend to enjoy admitting they were wrong). Personally, I think he has everything going for him to go on to achieve greatness but only time will tell.

 

Going through the current heavyweight division isn't even close to making Joshua the "greatest HW of all time". Muhammad Ali and Joe Louis would still be miles ahead.

Joshua needs to dominate for a long time, like Wlad did, and face even better opposition than Wlad did.

 

Even if you were right that Joshua would beat those (let's not revive that debate), it still doesn't make Joshua "greater" than Ali. Greater is not the same as better H2H. Being great is about accomplishments, dominating for a long time, winning big fights against other prime HOFs and ATGs, etc.

 

He can reach ATG status, but to be mentioned along the same lines as Louis or Ali, he either needs to break the title defences record(which means 24 straight wins after this point) or to have several fellow ATG competitors, fight them when they're still capable and get the better of them. And neither of these seem very likely.

 

If Joshua dominates the division for the next 10+ year new greats will come up. Usyk might be an ATG cruiser, that'd still be a very good win, and there will be a new generation of HWs.

Let's just imagine that Wlad had KO'ed Joshua, then Joshua rebuilt and went on to dominate the division. That'd be an awesome win.

 

Loool your trolling man, Povetkin has never beaten a top 10 HW, Fury has only beaten 1 top 10 HW he has the best win of the new batch. Klitischko isn’t really in this era btw. AJ has one top 10 win over a 41 year old coming off a loss and a two year lay off. This era is one of the weakest since Wlads era.

 

He would have to unify the division and stay unbeaten for about 10 years.

It’s not just what he needs to do, it’s what others need to do. He can only be judged on the level of opposition he faces. He needs some real competition in the division because right now he’s levels above everyone. There’s quite a few bunched up a level or two below him but he needs better.

Klitschko and Fury are two massive names. He’s disposed of Klitschko and he’s got the “well he was old and finished” when/If he fights fury and wins he will get “well fury was out for 2/3 years”.

He’s going to be a victim of his time.