When was Anthony Joshua’s prime?

Coming into Vs Andy Ruiz 1

 

I get what you’re saying but I would say he is a boxer but he was never a fighter, and that’s always been clear apart from the earl days.
I think what he’s achieved in spite of not having a fighters mentality or heart (his biggest display of heart was probably against Dubois, he took some serious licks), makes it hard not to respect his achievements.
Post war European gate sales or close to.
There’s very few in boxing that make it to the top who aren’t fighting men.
He has lived every second of his development as a boxer in the spotlight, and he has made mistakes in the ring and in front of the media.
But with a very limited amateur career and a late start in boxing, but he has always brought entertainment, like it or not he has been the face of the heavyweight division for half a generation.
He brought eyes to the sport and never disrespected the sport in any way.
But he was dismantled by Dubois and he made mistakes of a novice, low loose guard, chin up and flat footed with minimal lateral movement, with all his experience how can he make those mistakes?
I don’t know when his prime was, his power was prime in his early fights, his recovery was prime against vlad, his boxing was prime against Usyk in the rematch, his killer instinct was prime against Whyte and his heart was prime against Dubois.
For all the hype and the titles and the championship fights I enjoyed the ride, but I will love him forever for the perfect knockout of Ngannou, I know he wasn’t a boxer but he carried the hope of the mma world and had he been successful boxing would have never been the same again, the crossover between mma and boxing would have been blurred.
But the devastating knockout was enough to put mma back in its box for a long time.
As much as he’s done it’s that knockout that was the most important for me, it drew the line and it saved boxing for me.
I personally think that he should call it a day now, I have no doubt he was capable of beating Dubois, I actually thought he would but that level of defeat is difficult to overcome, especially for someone like Joshua.
As a fan of boxing I think regardless of what you think of him, he has pushed the sport forward more than anyone else in this generation.
If you are a boxing fan you don’t need to like Joshua but you should respect what he has done for this sport.

 

Either 2018 when he beat Parker then Povetkin

Or strange as it may sound, when he fought Usyk back to back, age 31-32 which is a typical HW's prime. Make no mistake he lost both those fights clearly, but I rewatched clips and that version of Joshua actually had decent boxing fundamentals, jabbing with Usyk, setting up shots and landing some counters of his own. He was just up against an ATG in Usyk.

It was a far cry from 2 nights ago with his hands by his side and his chin in the air, just asking to get chinned by Dubois. It really is baffling how **** he looked against Dubois

 

I think before Wlad floored him in round 6 of their 2017 fight. Think there has been a bit of PTSD ever since.

 

Physically I'd say between 2018 to 2022 was his prime. But physical ability has never really been a problem for him he's usually had big physical advantages over his opponents.

Joshua's problem is on the mental side of the game. The Ruiz loss was embarrassing and should have never happened. It signified a change in mindset from AJ, he had become a brand more than a boxer and spent the build up of that fight promoting himself and barely talking about Ruiz. He had fallen for his own hype.

After the loss he made changes which was the right thing to do, you tried to box more take less risks, mitigate chances of him being caught when exchanging but this also took away what was always one of his big weapons, his offence and combinations up close. Not sure you can call this a decline in ability he just became a different fighter.

He then ran into Usyk and a prime Joshua lost to him not once but twice and mentally Joshua crumbled. His prime basically ended here the way he mentally unravelled was bizarre and exposed his mental weakness. Great fighters have a certain mindset and can shake off losses, he simply doesn't have it, each loss has impacted him and he hasn't really ever overcome them the way a great fighter does.

 

AJ isn't a great... the resume sucks.. Dubois's is already beating his.

 

His confidence was sky high. I think it was after the 3rd round in which he calmly sat down in his corner and basically shrugged it all of. "It´s OK We are made for this. Dubois ain´t ****."
Call it delusional or whatever, but he was there to win that fight despite the beatdown.

*His prime was probably from 2018 to 2022. The second Usyk fight was highly competitive but after that he struggled badly with Franklin and Helenius.

 

Calm down there fella. Dubois already has two losses at the age of 27. Joshua at the age of 28 unified with Parker.
But what a run Dubois is on. If he can keep up this activity level then he might surpass Joshua and Fury because he keeps fighting at such a high level.

 

I would say from Whyte fight to the Ruiz fight.

 

He never had a prime.

 

He's done now. And Fury and Wilder are following him. Their e time is coming to an end.

 

His prime is now, same as wilder

Nobody used age decline, beat downs from Fury as excuses for his last 2 outings. It was just because he was always rubbish

We need to treat Aj the same. This is what happens when your opponent is hungry, similar sized and not 40 years old

 

Wilder was the first one done out of these three.

 

Usyk II

 

Yes imo all 3 should be retired by the end of the next year.