I agree here pal. I once saw it like that but Joshua has fought very timidly since Ruiz. Would he really go in swinging?
also look how long it took Joshua to get rid of pulev that wouldn’t inspire much confidence.
On recent evidence I'd say Joshua would s**t himself if he was in the ring with Wilder.
Deer in the headlights comes to mind.
There won’t be any trenches for AJ or Wilder. Either lands clean and it’s lights out.
but yes, Wilder has more fight/gusto.
If AJ hits Wilder with the KO perhaps. But AJ has no heart. If it gets into the trenches Wilder wins I think
But Wilder likely would have been taken out far earlier had Joshua been connecting and following up.
Fury was quite poor in the finishing sense. Took him too many rds to put away a fighter that was gassing badly for rds.
I still think Wilder-AJ is a 50/50 three rds toss up
I've often made the comparison between Bruno and Joshua
Wilder smacks the sh1t out of Bruno and Joshua all day. One thing I took from the 3rd fight is wilder does have heart. He was willing to die in the ring
Not every fighter has that mentality..you'll notice them, the guy that turns his back his opponent when he's in bother. You know his goose is cooked
^^^ If Ruiz had shown up in shape he'd have caught up to Joshua a few times and would have beaten him again.
My God. I’ve just finished the last 15 mins of it. He sounded like he was drunk, high or concussed. Incredible amount of nonsense.
Funny a couple of cousins of mine and me went to the Whyte Rivas fight and he was saying that way back then. He keeps going back to it. He called Usyk to win and maybe even stop him and he reckons Whyte will get another go at him and take him, just hoping that it happens for a belt. He likes Whyte but I thought those were well put together arguments.
This shiit about everyone knows what I’m about I fight anyone. He hasn’t really been given an opportunity to do that because the division was missing elite opposition with Fury out but he priced himself out of the Wilder fight for all the belts. He fought turkeys like Takam and Pulev (at this stage) and wanted to fight Millar. He had no fighting spirit in his two losses. Ruiz ripped him apart and he didn’t have the grit to hang in there. In the rematch he ran and even though I believed that should be his tactic he still didn’t want to fight. He was aided that Ruiz turned up fulla jelly. That interview was so unconvincing. Full of contradiction. Rob will likely be kept around for the look of it but he will have a different trainer.
A fascinating fight. I hope we see it - this is boxing though so we'll probably get a Usyk Joshua trilogy and Fury fighting a series of cans.
AJ must be hard work to be around. All that talking in circles and not making any point.
I think Fury will be more the puzzle for Usyk
AJ doesn't have the intestinal fortitude as Iron Mike would say. Fury's will is what sets him apart from the pack. I wonder will we ever see Fury v Usyk? He's a puzzle for Fury and would be a major test of his style.
Hard to even fathom that someone could be more cringe inducing than Wilder but AJ out done him at the end,
You can see why Fury has never been worried about him
It sound crazy but the way AJ is all over the shop recently i would actually love to see the rematch with Whyte , As limited as Whyte is i think he would really try to put it on AJ & see what AJ really has left in the tank ,
did anyone see the end of the AJ interview when he tried to become some sort of bad man?
I haven’t heard Dubois named but he’d be a fool to take the fight from a boxing point of view. Joyce would make for an interesting fight but too slow. I can’t stop thinking about the Lewis right cross for him. I think he’d be the worst possible fantasy match up for Joyce.
Joyce and Dubois being thrown around as potential next fights for Fury.....
Dubois next to no chance. At least Joyce will bring some forward pressure.
Leave it out, lads....chap is still trying to figure out the sport!
His eyes looked banged up ,like he'd been sparing ,
He couldn't even work out 2011 was 10 years ago ,
Hearn & Match room built up persona to hide his lack of personality & its like now he actually believes that is the real him, He contradicts himself one sentence to the next because he is always trying to say something that sounds good or wise,
AJ v Wilder would be gas Fortune cookie quotes against the 80's high school movie bad guy quotes,
Yup that interview was an absolute car wreck. He’s made a fool out of himself. He looked scruffy and unrested too. Any time he talked about boxing as opposed to fighting he sounded like he hadnt a clue. When he was saying unless he changed things up he wouldn’t have a brain cell left I was thinking he perhaps realised this too late!
Aj is actually thicker then i thought, wtf does studying boxing iq mean, couldn't do simple maths then claimed he was thinking about 2022 thats why he couldn't add up 2011-2021 being 10 years. Hes better off not doing interviews. As whyte said hes strange guy.
Listening to it now. First thought was that he’s had a confidence crisis. Load of nonsense. This talk of hitting Usyk to the hip etc sounds a bit desperate.
Talking about being a sponge for information and then struggling with the concept of a unanimous decision. Doesn;t know what the game plan was.
Then the it’s just war bit.. Jesus is he taking lessons from wilder on public speaking?
The british talk is nauseating. People giving him hate for winning vs losing. He lost against top level opponents and looked bad doing so. The wins were against cans like Charles Martin.
All in all a poor showing.
In the rematch he can win. He will need in my opinion to risk emptying the tank. Usyk might just be that good that he can keep out of the way. Joshua to win will have to react calmly to getting hit and he’s not been good at that no matter what he says about this amazing spirit of his.
Hmm had another look through Lewis’ cv. I remember him commentating on the Rachman Wlad fight (insufferably arrogant) and he talked about his vs Wlad’s power with the other commentator. He reckoned that he had concussive one punch power whereas Wlad wore down opponents. I’m struggling to remember many fights where we saw this one punch clean out. What comes to mind is Golota, Rachman, Botha, Grant… Add away. Grant did get up alright and I think got hit well after the bell.
That said the man hit very, very hard. Could Tyson take that kind of power well into the fight?
Early 90s I think Tyson is a clear winner and favourite. Late 90s Lewis is a tough proposition for even Tyson’s best night.
I’ve been watching alot of 90s fights the past few days and I definitely thought to myself that Bruno reminded me of AJ.
Well, I for one can’t wait for the rematch. Hope to god AJ at least puts in an actual HW committed effort, as opposed to fooking tip tapping for 12 rds. Should make for a far better fight, as well as showing us what Usyk is truly made of at HW.
Talking of 80s and 90s fighters lately, does anyone else think that Joshua has become Frank Bruno mark 2?
Since the Ruiz fight he has looked so stiff and tentative, he really has regressed as a fighter. He had been hit hard before and was even knocked down by Klitchko but it seems being stopped has taken all the fight and nastiness out of him.
For all his sound bite talk I think his mental state or ego has been burst.
AJ interview with Kugan just shows he's all over the shop
The learning all done now its war, 5 minutes later im off to the US to learn from new coaches i never stop learning
I dont make excuses, i learned after the Ruiz fight certain things happened to make me lose but I wont say what,
He doesn't know what the game plan was for the Usyk fight ud have to ask my team.. .. WTF
The rest is fortunate cookie qoutes
Definitely on similar pages here. And as I said, Lewis is better than any championship Tyson opponent win, so no real surprise if the mid to later 90s Lewis can win. I still reckon it’s likely points for Lewis or KO for Tyson. I think Rooney prepared Tyson is a ridiculously difficult fighter to KO/stop
Maybe just for humanity/friendship and feeling. It all can play a part and affect people. Rob and AJ are likely more than just strictly trainer/boxer..
Love the nickname, love the post, agree with your stance on the second point but I don’t see any compelling argument to keep McCracken
He turned up all over the place against Rachman he wasn’t at all focussed. If he were fighting a peak Tyson then he would be razor sharp. The McCaul I night Tyson would have beaten but the Rachman II fight I really don’t think so. That jab was incredible maybe the best there has ever been. The big right cross. If Tyson has to eat 2 or 3 of those then even he with this superchin isn’t going to stay up. He was a far harder hitter than Holyfield too.
I do like how you have dissected the whole point though and I was a bit dismissive of it earlier, I’ll climb down from that. I’d be screaming for Tyson but I’d expect Lewis. If they fought a trilogy then I wouldn’t be surprised at all with a one each and decider going to points. The Tyson KO would have been incredible.
I’d say I’m about 65-35 on it. I can’t stand Lewis as I take great pains to express but he always found a way to spoil things for me. I’ll never forget two live fights I saw on tv - McCaul II (reminded me of Aidan O’Shea in an All Ireland Final) I was distraught. I remember my dad saying before the fight it just depends on what frame of mind McCaul is in. I, a child, said surely he will be in a good frame of mind for this fight. My dad said you just wouldn’t know that. Then the second round happened and then the rest. What a mess. That and the first Rachman fight, haha I was in jubilant form that night.
BAck to the point at hand. Lewis would do very well to keep Tyson off him. The body attack would be killer. It took a good (not great) Lewis 8 rounds to beat a finished Tyson - lots in there for your point. But Lewis fought plenty of good fighters who weren’t able to get that ko shot in. He only lost twice and avenged both. We aren’t as far apart on this as it seemed a couple of days ago haha
