The fantasy match : Holyfield (1990) vs current Joshua

[jamesmcdonnell]

Nope, pretty much the same fighter, similar statistics, similar style, similar built, everything.

Just to clarify, are you talking about Joshua and Vitali or young Briggs vs old Briggs? You're wrong in either case, but I just want to be clear who you're talking about.

Joshua and Vitali are basically the same fighters for me yes.

Then you haven't a clue what you're watching.

[tiny_acres]

Just to clarify, are you talking about Joshua and Vitali or young Briggs vs old Briggs? You're wrong in either case, but I just want to be clear who you're talking about.

Joshua and Vitali are basically the same fighters for me yes.

Then you haven't a clue what you're watching.

Don't state the obvious. We all know assfucked doesn't know crap about boxing

[jamesmcdonnell]

Joshua and Vitali are basically the same fighters for me yes.

Then you haven't a clue what you're watching.

Don't state the obvious. We all know assfucked doesn't know crap about boxing

I apologise, I've been very bad.

[jbizzle20]

Holyfield struggled with guys who could exploit a reach advantage (Holmes, Lewis). Thing is, this Joshua hasn't learned to fully use his reach advantage yet. He still looks pretty green at times and makes amateur mistakes that a fighter such as prime Holyfield would exploit. The Holyfield that came out against Douglas was lean and determined yet had enough boxing skill to punish Joshua's mistakes. I think Joshua gets caught up in a few too many onslaughts. Holyfield by late TKO.

[jbizzle20]

Just to clarify, are you talking about Joshua and Vitali or young Briggs vs old Briggs? You're wrong in either case, but I just want to be clear who you're talking about.

Joshua and Vitali are basically the same fighters for me yes.

Ok, wow, where to start?! Their height and weight are relatively similar, though Joshua is slightly shorter and the more musclebound, so he is the naturally smaller man of the two, though not by much. If you said they had a similar stature, that would be a reasonable observation, but their fighting styles are completely different.

The most glaring difference is the way they throw their punches. Vitali was an arm puncher, he was a naturally heavy-handed guy, but he didn't generate power through his hips. The way he threw punches was like a bigger, heavier-handed, much slower Muhammad Ali. Or for a better comparison, see footage of Jess Willard (he fights much more like Vitali than AJ). His high knockout ration comes from a combination of poor, usually much smaller opposition, who he would usually wear down and often stop late from an accumulation of punches.

AJ, on the other hand, is a pure power puncher. He generates power through his hips and hits with significantly more force than Vitali. Another major difference is that Vitali generally fought with his hands down, while AJ more often keeps a high guard. Their style of defense is very different too, with AJ often preferring to block punches, while Vitali more often made use of head and foot movement to avoid punches.

Lewis did this early in his career and it was a hindrance. He fought with a compact style that didn't use his full reach advantage. Steward changed this and got him to loosen up. He had Lewis reach out at guys and keep them away, not letting them get anywhere close. That loose style also enabled Lewis to generate more leverage on his power punches and gave him his trademark overhand right. Joshua should adopt the same approach. Being an inside fighter when you have a major size advantage is a dumb idea. It screwed Bowe's career over and prevented him from reaching his potential.

[Kalan]

Supposing Holy's prime was about 1990, when he destroyed Douglas (although personally prefer his fights against Tyson) what do you think about this fantasy match ? Would Joshua's size be a decisive factor ?

Well... Riddick Bowe was a terrible boxer but he was big, tall, dumb, and strong... He beat Holyfield 2 out of 3... and ducked Lewis at every turn.

Joshua is bigger and stronger than Bowe.. He's very bright... He's a brilliant jabber and right hand counterpuncher.. Also his lead right is the best I've ever seen at Heavyweight... Unlike Bowe, Joshua trains like a maniac and arrives in perfect condition for every fight, even for punch bags like Gary Cornish -- who is 23-1 but his opposition has gone south again since he was knocked out in a minute by AJ... And Joshua is about 17 times harder to hit than Bowe -- so he destroys Holyfield without even trying.

[jezzamundo]

Supposing Holy's prime was about 1990, when he destroyed Douglas (although personally prefer his fights against Tyson) what do you think about this fantasy match ? Would Joshua's size be a decisive factor ?

Well... Riddick Bowe was a terrible boxer but he was big, tall, dumb, and strong... He beat Holyfield 2 out of 3... and ducked Lewis at every turn.

Joshua is bigger and stronger than Bowe.. He's very bright... He's a brilliant jabber and right hand counterpuncher.. Also his lead right is the best I've ever seen at Heavyweight... Unlike Bowe, Joshua trains like a maniac and arrives in perfect condition for every fight, even for punch bags like Gary Cornish -- who is 23-1 but his opposition has gone south again since he was knocked out in a minute by AJ... And Joshua is about 17 times harder to hit than Bowe -- so he destroys Holyfield without even trying.

Joshua has done nothing to prove he's as good as Bowe yet. He might be, he might be better, but we won't know until he steps into the ring with another top heavyweight.

[tiny_acres]

Supposing Holy's prime was about 1990, when he destroyed Douglas (although personally prefer his fights against Tyson) what do you think about this fantasy match ? Would Joshua's size be a decisive factor ?

Well... Riddick Bowe was a terrible boxer but he was big, tall, dumb, and strong... He beat Holyfield 2 out of 3... and ducked Lewis at every turn.

Joshua is bigger and stronger than Bowe.. He's very bright... He's a brilliant jabber and right hand counterpuncher.. Also his lead right is the best I've ever seen at Heavyweight... Unlike Bowe, Joshua trains like a maniac and arrives in perfect condition for every fight, even for punch bags like Gary Cornish -- who is 23-1 but his opposition has gone south again since he was knocked out in a minute by AJ... And Joshua is about 17 times harder to hit than Bowe -- so he destroys Holyfield without even trying.

Joshua has done nothing to prove he's as good as Bowe yet. He might be, he might be better, but we won't know until he steps into the ring with another top heavyweight.

You are wasting your breath.
The nut hugging of Joshua has taken over too many people.
Now all we can do is wait and see.

[ValMar]

Well... Riddick Bowe was a terrible boxer but he was big, tall, dumb, and strong... He beat Holyfield 2 out of 3... and ducked Lewis at every turn.

Joshua is bigger and stronger than Bowe.. He's very bright... He's a brilliant jabber and right hand counterpuncher.. Also his lead right is the best I've ever seen at Heavyweight... Unlike Bowe, Joshua trains like a maniac and arrives in perfect condition for every fight, even for punch bags like Gary Cornish -- who is 23-1 but his opposition has gone south again since he was knocked out in a minute by AJ... And Joshua is about 17 times harder to hit than Bowe -- so he destroys Holyfield without even trying.

Joshua has done nothing to prove he's as good as Bowe yet. He might be, he might be better, but we won't know until he steps into the ring with another top heavyweight.

You are wasting your breath.
The nut hugging of Joshua has taken over too many people.
Now all we can do is wait and see.

Anyway, AJ has a great potential, he might be the heir of Lennox Lewis. I wrote : HE MIGHT BE, not HE WILL BE. It is a little bit strange for me, but there are so many AJ's haters on this forum (British forum, I mean).

[Syntax Error]

Supposing Holy's prime was about 1990, when he destroyed Douglas (although personally prefer his fights against Tyson) what do you think about this fantasy match ? Would Joshua's size be a decisive factor ?

Joshua's size would have been irrelevant.

As long as Holyfied would have been able to reach his chin (which he would have with ease), then it's no contest.

Joshua has done nothing to suggest he could live with Holyfield '90.

AJ's only hope would be to dry & draw Evander into a slugfest (which would have been easy to do, as Evander could be lured into brawls) & hope that he clocked the Real Deal, but Evander had one hell of a chin in his prime & even if he did go down, you damn well know he would have got back up & started fighting back even harder.

[tiny_acres]

Joshua has done nothing to prove he's as good as Bowe yet. He might be, he might be better, but we won't know until he steps into the ring with another top heavyweight.

You are wasting your breath.
The nut hugging of Joshua has taken over too many people.
Now all we can do is wait and see.

Anyway, AJ has a great potential, he might be the heir of Lennox Lewis. I wrote : HE MIGHT BE, not HE WILL BE. It is a little bit strange for me, but there are so many AJ's haters on this forum (British forum, I mean).

I don't think anyone hates Joshua
He is entertaining and appears to have a bright future.
But comparing him to proven all time greats before he has faced even one universally recognized top 10 contender. Is quite insane

Being hesitant to rank him along the atgs is not hating.
It's being realistic

[ValMar]

You are wasting your breath.
The nut hugging of Joshua has taken over too many people.
Now all we can do is wait and see.

Anyway, AJ has a great potential, he might be the heir of Lennox Lewis. I wrote : HE MIGHT BE, not HE WILL BE. It is a little bit strange for me, but there are so many AJ's haters on this forum (British forum, I mean).

I don't think anyone hates Joshua
He is entertaining and appears to have a bright future.
But comparing him to proven all time greats before he has faced even one universally recognized top 10 contender. Is quite insane

Being hesitant to rank him along the atgs is not hating.
It's being realistic

I don't consider this topic only. There are so many topics on this forum.