[Other Sport] Anthony Joshua

[Withdean11]

Have you been to a Joshua fight? Ive been to quite a few, always a sell out, loads of genuine boxing fans.

Ive also been to watch fury live including once at the O2 when I managed to bag a freebie because they couldn't sell the tickets.

The crowd you get at a Joshua fight is much different to a standard boxing crowd. A good chunk are partners who have come along because they fancy him. It’s a night out to dress up and get an Instagram photo. He’s very much a casual fans fighter, not knocking it though. It’s a huge market and Eddie is by far the best in the business for it.

 

[Half Time Pies]

That was then, this is now. I think people have woken up to how good Fury is whilst getting a bit wiser to the Joshua corporate band wagon.

“Dedication and sacrifice” whilst I sip my bottle of Gatorade wearing Under Armour.

He’s trying to dine out on recapturing the Heavyweight title against a bloke who made Jockey Wilson look like an athlete in their last fight.

Before Fury fought Wilder watching him was like watching paint dry. People have always gone to watch Joshua because it's exciting and thats why he has all the sponsorship deals. What person in their right mind would turn down sponsorship money? You can seriously begrudge him that? Its like saying Botham wasnt serious because he dined out on shredded wheat or Linekar ate too many walkers!

Fury showed a different side to himself in the Wilder fight, I think most people were suprised and all credit to him. Lets also bear in mind though that Wilder has always been a limited fighter with one attribute which is his power. Joshua is 10x the boxer Wilder i from a technical perspective.

 

[big nuts]

Before Fury fought Wilder watching him was like watching paint dry. People have always gone to watch Joshua because it's exciting and thats why he has all the sponsorship deals. What person in their right mind would turn down sponsorship money? You can seriously begrudge him that? Its like saying Botham wasnt serious because he dined out on shredded wheat or Linekar ate too many walkers!

Fury showed a different side to himself in the Wilder fight, I think most people were suprised and all credit to him. Lets also bear in mind though that Wilder has always been a limited fighter with one attribute which is his power. Joshua is 10x the boxer Wilder is.

I certainly don’t begrudge athletes taking sponsorship money but for me the difference is sponsors would go nowhere near Joshua if it wasn’t for Hearn and the PR machine surrounding him.

My personal opinion is, we never see the real Joshua and that’s a shame for me because he’d be far more interesting if we did see him for what he is.

Joshua is exciting I’ll give you that. He is the heavyweight version of Amir Khan and a lot of the excitement comes from his own vulnerability.

 

[Half Time Pies]

The crowd you get at a Joshua fight is much different to a standard boxing crowd. A good chunk are partners who have come along because they fancy him. It’s a night out to dress up and get an Instagram photo. He’s very much a casual fans fighter, not knocking it though. It’s a huge market and Eddie is by far the best in the business for it.

Agree you get a more mixed crowd with lots of drunk Women but also plenty of boxing fans!

Thing I dispute is this idea that he's a limited boxer that somehow doesn't interest anyone with a passing knowledge of boxing. He an olympic champion ffs!

 

[Half Time Pies]

I certainly don’t begrudge athletes taking sponsorship money but for me the difference is sponsors would go nowhere near Joshua if it wasn’t for Hearn and the PR machine surrounding him.

My personal opinion is, we never see the real Joshua and that’s a shame for me because he’d be far more interesting if we did see him for what he is.

Joshua is exciting I’ll give you that. He is the heavyweight version of Amir Khan and a lot of the excitement comes from his own vulnerability.

Like another poster has already said on here (who I think from memory is or was a professional fighter), the persona you see on TV is very different from reality. Theres very little real in the world of boxing hype, its always been a pantomime and thats why people love it. Bottom line is most Boxers want to maximise their income, some are better at PR than others, the ones that look the part and talk the talk always make more money.

 

[crodonilson]

4-1 to AJ on world titles, he holds all the cards and he'll fight the Bigot when he's ready and the terms are suitable.

 

[The_Viper]

Fury beat Klitschko whilst barely dropping a round against a fighter who up to then had barely lost one.

He then returned after a lengthy lay off and outboxed Wilder and in the rematch dismantled him.

Joshua went life and death against Klitschko then lost to an unheralded Mexican.

You look at the form and there is only one winner. But not just that you look at their abilities and styles and Joshua is at least a 10/1 shot in my opinion.

It would need to be a Rahman vs Lewis scenario for him to win.

I genuinely believe it could be quite embarrassing for Joshua, such is his limitations against a genuinely top class boxer.

Imagine acting like you're a hardcore boxing fan and then calling Andy Ruiz who I still believe beat Parker for that belt a few years ago an 'unheralded Mexican'. It certainly seems like you don't know much at all if you thought Ruiz was a nobody. Oh, and quick reminder that Tyson Fury (who I like a lot btw) hasn't ever defended a belt yet. For a genuinely top class boxer his CV is incredibly shallow, and without a single title defence to his name. Oops!

 

[Smile]

Pretty sure the terms have been agreed by both boxers for Tyson v AJ. 50 - 50 split in fight one with the winner then receiving 60% in fight two. Just the smaller things to agree on, who's name first, who comes out second etc.

An amazing couple of nights when they happen, whoever wins.

 

[big nuts]

Imagine acting like you're a hardcore boxing fan and then calling Andy Ruiz who I still believe beat Parker for that belt a few years ago an 'unheralded Mexican'. It certainly seems like you don't know much at all if you thought Ruiz was a nobody. Oh, and quick reminder that Tyson Fury (who I like a lot btw) hasn't ever defended a belt yet. For a genuinely top class boxer his CV is incredibly shallow, and without a single title defence to his name. Oops!

He lost to Parker and had never held a belt previously. Please carry on though Bert Sugar!

 

[Albion Dan]

and the majority of British boxing fans will be hoping he does so.

Definitely delusional. Fury is the people’s champ. Joshua nothing more than a stiff boring robot.

 

[Bold Seagull]

The crowd you get at a Joshua fight is much different to a standard boxing crowd. A good chunk are partners who have come along because they fancy him. It’s a night out to dress up and get an Instagram photo. He’s very much a casual fans fighter, not knocking it though. It’s a huge market and Eddie is by far the best in the business for it.

Eddie Hearn’s been on Fighting Talk twice now, and twice got through to ‘defend the indefensible’ and twice Colin Murray has asked him to go against AJ and twice Eddie has refused to do it. Very funny, yesterday Hearn had me properly laughing ‘I don’t care what the point of your show is, Joshua is twice the fighter Fury will ever be’

 

[Guinness Boy]

Fury can be a repulsive homophobic nause and he can be the down to earth man of the people. I suspect both personalities are him. Incredible how people are prepared to ignore personality one because of personality two and then say Joshua isn't "real".

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

I enjoyed the fight. Thought it was very entertaining.

Cannot wait for the Fury fight now. Imagine if the fight was held at Wembley a few weeks before the Euro 2020 final with England playing and winning. What a period for English sport that would be!

 

[The Wizard]

Boxing fans piss me off, I know I called Joshua out earlier in the thread for not fighting the best but we should appreciate we are living in a golden time for British boxing, albeit the heavyweight category is a little bit bare of world class fighters. Both fury and Joshua are incredible fighters, AJ is the more typical media trained sort of guy that the general public will like whilst Fury is the very unmedia trained, unorthodox boxer with unrivalled technical and mental ability IMO.

I think based on everything I’ve seen from both Fury takes it but it would go down to who is the better prepared and who performs better on the night, my gut tells me Fury wins because AJ wont have the advantages in reach that he loves so his jab that he’s relied on last few fights will struggle. Get the fight on PLEASE for the love of god so we can stop having to have these arguments

 

[Weststander]

An okay performance. He is trying to refine himself and take less risks, but he is still pretty basic and I can’t see him having much chance at all against Fury.

He has limitations/weaknesses. Imho most heavyweight champions in the last 30 years have, Wilder definitely. It’s very rare that a 17 stone fighter has the mobility and relaxed flow of punches of say the middleweights (downwards), with every punch in their armoury.

Lennox Lewis and Fury the two exceptions imo.

 

[big nuts]

He has limitations/weaknesses. Imho most heavyweight champions in the last 30 years have, Wilder definitely. It’s very rare that a 17 stone fighter has the mobility and relaxed flow of punches of say the middleweights (downwards), with every punch in their armoury.

Lennox Lewis and Fury the two exceptions imo.

To a degree but I think Joshua has several weaknesses. Across the past 30 years in addition to the two names you mention he’d badly struggle against the likes of Riddick Bowe, George Foreman, Mike Tyson and a prime Vladimir & Vitali Klitschko.

Holyfield would be significantly smaller but again you can never write off the ‘real deal’ and I’d take him to come out on top.

Heavyweights like Ray Mercer, Razor Ruddock, David Tua & Tommy Morrison may well have been too much for Joshua. Hard to compare era’s but take out Fury & Joshua there isn’t a huge amount of depth in the heavyweight scene.

 

[The_Viper]

He lost to Parker and had never held a belt previously. Please carry on though Bert Sugar!

Yea, and I thought he beat Parker, personally. He was a far far better fighter than Miller was and I was surprised when they moved to him because I thought he was a much much better fighter than Miller was and a totally different proposition, as it was proven to be. AJ's CV makes Fury and Wilder look incredibly tame by comparison, he's fought top 10 fighter after top 10 fighter, whether they're elite or not it doesn't matter he hasn't ducked anybody and has been willing to fight anyone.

Fury put on a masterclass against Wlad and then failed to defend his title, he is a two time champion and STILL hasn't put on a single title defence, it's inexcusable. If you want to be the best you have to create a legacy and a CV and Fury has neither because he's not fought enough contenders to do so, if he fights and beats AJ then he is 100% the best there is, so lets make the fight!

Wilder fought absolute nobodies too so he's not even in the conversation, an ancient Ortiz who I think is overrated simply because he's never really fought anyone near the top and a Tyson Fury just returning from being a balloon before being easily dispatched in the rematch.

 

[Weststander]

To a degree but I think Joshua has several weaknesses. Across the past 30 years in addition to the two names you mention he’d badly struggle against the likes of Riddick Bowe, George Foreman, Mike Tyson and a prime Vladimir & Vitali Klitschko.

Holyfield would be significantly smaller but again you can never write off the ‘real deal’ and I’d take him to come out on top.

Heavyweights like Ray Mercer, Razor Ruddock, David Tua & Tommy Morrison may well have been too much for Joshua. Hard to compare era’s but take out Fury & Joshua there isn’t a huge amount of depth in the heavyweight scene.

Anyone’s guess, but you may well be right.

None of those to me had the complete skill set of a great defence, full array of punches, expertly able to box, a decent chin, and the rarity in the division of being loose (not muscle bound).

Lennox Lewis and Fury imho did, good point about Holyfield ... quite possibly him too.

 

[banjo]

I always preferred the middleweight fights.

 

[DJ NOBO]

I’ve thought about it a lot, and imho Joshua has the beating of Fury.