When did joshuas prime end ?

If you were to ask Fast Eddie it's still coming

 

Regardless of which version of AJ Usyk did face, he'd have still beaten any version of AJ prime or not.

You can argue the Usyk that Fury and AJ faced was somewhat past his prime himself.

 

No idea. The highest opinion I and many have had of Joshua was right before the Dubois fight. So no idea what to make of Joshua.

Before Dubois Joshuas only faced guys his age or older. Wallin was 1 year younger. Parkers a few years younger and Joshua fought him way back in 2018. Its harder to track the decline of an older elite fighter when everyone at the elite level is their age. All the disadvantages that come with naturally aging don't matter if you're fighting fighters going through the same thing.

 

I honestly think the second Usyk fight was the best version of Joshua. He looked really good that night. Tight defense and lots of power. His high guard really worked for him. Unfortunately, Usyk was just too good.

Davidson seems to have turned him into a low guard fighter who takes extreme risks like leading with the uppercut. Bad idea.

 

Prematurely is the answer.

Because it had no reason to end, but when Usyk beat him the second time something changed in his preparation.

His entourage and fans managed to convince him that his comeback run was actually the most in form run in the division. We saw it on this very forum.

He didnt prepare like a challenger, he prepares like a complacent champion which is why Dubois blitzed him.

His prime didnt have to end, he just had too many yes men telling him what he was doing was enough when it clearly wasn't.

 

AJ for Usyk 2 would have beaten any other heavyweight that night, I really do believe that. And you know what, I think that fighter is still in there. I have always been in the Fury camp but right now, if even 80% of that fighter remains, he'll beat Fury if they ever do meet. AJ is the same fighter he always was. He's a Forest Gump 'boxachocolates' fighter, you never know what your gonna get and hey it might be brilliant, bland or broken. All the physical tools, mentally predisposed to doubt.

 

Wlad or Usyk II.

Got the win vs Wlad but had to come through hell and think it shook him up a bit.

Usyk II - recovered from being outclassed and gave a very good account of himself but Usyk had too much.

 

Joshua is a confidence fighter and the mental side of his game has always been his Achilles heel. The Wlad fight took away a bit of Joshua’s game and then the Ruiz loss was bad for him but to his credit he rematched and won. The first Usyk fight he had the same look about him as he did for the Ruiz 1 fight and looked a beaten fighter on his ring walk before a punch was even thrown. The second Usyk fight he did better and was certainly showing more confidence going into this fight however the meltdown at the end of the fight spoke volumes. Once again to his credit Joshua came back with four wins,winning some in very good fashion and was no doubt in a very good mental state with his confidence back going into the Dubois fight. However once again Joshua had that forlorn look about him during the ring walk and after numerous knockdowns he was eventually KOd in five rounds. Joshua has not fought since and nor has he rematched his conquerer like in the past and imo this could be the loss that has broke him unlike in the past when he has bounced back from his losses.

 

As if you went to university

 

Usyk II was the best he ever looked. It’s too bad he couldn’t accept that Usyk just had his number, but move on with that same training and fighting. That guy would have wrecked Wilder, never have thrown a lead right uppercut with his left hand down against Dubois, might have battered Fury around a ring, etc.

He’s only 35 though. He conceivably could give it a go at one more serious run, if he got back into that form and could keep his cool in the ring. 35 isn’t all that old for a HW who has never done stupid **** to his body and health.

 

his team had seen Foreman-Frazier 2 and saved him from that fate. After that kind of beating, you don’t let your man in with that guy again. You do everything in the world to talk him out of it, save his health (especially a guy like AJ who already has all the money he’ll ever need).

could he have done better if he’d been much more defensively responsible? Yep. But I think the result would have been the same. Every single thing Dubois landed visibly hurt AJ. At some point, no matter how defensively responsible AJ was, Dubois would get to him, break him down, end it.

 

Just let his BoxRec tell you: his peak was during the Klitschko fight. Since then, he has never won a 5-star boxing match against a premium opponent. He lost all of them—twice to Usyk and to Dubois. He was also TKOed by Andy Ruiz during his slow decline.

https://boxrec.com/en/box-pro/659461

 

Always wondered how they do the star system though - does the algorithm just see wins/losses? name value, tickets sold etc?

 

The second he started facing well schooled, prime competition. Anyone can look like a wrecking ball against 41 year olds.