I tend to think Ruiz II as well because it took a lot of discipline for Joshua to keep away from Ruiz' power for the whole 12 rounds. The Wallin win was of course way more impressive in its execution.
It took discipline I agree but Ruiz helped out by coming in so overweight and out of shape. Joshua did what he had to do and I salute him for that but Ruiz.... Ruiz disgraced himself and boxing coming into that fight the way he did.
Why would you interject with the opinion of someone that neither of us agrees with? I don't give a s*** about some HW ranking that had Otto Wallin #5 when Joshua fought him.
I guess it really is Otto Wallin until at least 2025, perhaps ever. How's Otto's career panning out? Did he ever prove he was higher in the rankings than Derek Chisora? To me, he clearly did not, which, if that's the case, he CLEARLY was never even a top 10 fighter.
Wallin is one of those debatable cases. He gave Fury a thought fight and then beat: Travis Kauffman, Dominic Breazeale, Kamil Sokolowski, Rydell Booker and Murat Gassiev. Are those great wins? No, but there was enough quality to put him in the bottom of the top 10. We need to see Wallin in there with one of the top 10 again.
For me, Chisora holds the keys to the top 10. You need to prove you're as good or better than him to get in. Wallin never did anything close to that. People had him at #10 based on theoretical potential (possibly that he was also about to face a money fighter...hmmm...), not what he did. He's never beaten a top 15 HW and doesn't pass the eye test. He isn't going to do anything in his career. He peaked with opening a gash over Fury's eye.
Like I said, I think it´s debatable. He has some decent wins under his belt, but it´s not necessarily enough to get him into the top 10. At the time there wasn´t as much competition in the division as there is now. I wouldn´t rank Wallin now, even if not taking into account the Joshua loss.
Going with the general flow with Wallin here, AND the way AJ totally dominated him. I remember AJ landing a thudding right to Walllns chest very early on and Wallin instantly having the look upon his face that screamed " feck this for a game of soldiers"
Reminds me of when Dubois landed a jab 10 seconds in on his last opponent. I think he actually s*** himself.
In late 2023 to be in the top 10 ability wise he would have to be ahead of among others Usyk Fury Joshua Kabayel Hrgovic Zhang Parker Dubois Bakole Anderson And theres still guys like Ajagba and Franklin to contend with once you get past those guys
Kabayel had yet to fight Makhmudov so wasn't rated particularly highly at the time. Parker had yet to beat Wilder, and was on a rebuild. Dubois was coming off a loss to Usyk and a very dodgy win over Lerena, and had yet to fight Miller. Joyce (not on your list) was a possibility from that time, as many didn't know how much he had left, but he just got stopped twice back to back by Zhang. Anderson v Bakole was a fight to establish the winner as top 10, but it didn't happen until 2024. Ajagba hadn't really beaten anyone on the level of Gassiev, who Wallin made easy work of. Neither had Franklin. Now some might say Franklin narrowly beat Whyte, but Whyte ducked Wallin so there's that. Then there was the whole factor of how well Wallin did against Fury in his loss. Which is what I assume is keeping Fury at #2 in current heavyweight rankings (i.e. losing well to Usyk). Back then among active fighters the guys who were a lock to be ahead of Wallin was more like: 1. Usyk 2. Fury 3. Zhang 4. Joshua 5. Wilder 6. Hrgovic (maybe 7. Parker) (maybe 8. Joyce)
There's that word "QUIT" again I am no fan of AJ, but that was not a genuine "quit" against Ruiz. Man was out on his feet. Haters gonna hate, I guess....