A. Josh is the best heavyweight ever

[Kalan]

The guy who stopped Joshua in amateurs thinks that he is still too open:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/boxing/la ... a-10293501

Why wouldn't he??? Beating AJ is his claim to fame... He's done nothing else worth a Worldwide Headline... He hasn't gotten ANY better since he beat Joshua and AJ's skills have increased 2000%.. Plus the Romanian beat a terrible Joshua in 2011.. AJ looked pathetic winning the Gold Medal. He won it off his height, reach, size, strength, speed, and athletic prowess, not on any skills.. Deontay Wilder looked even worse as an amateur. Now he's a multimillionaire.

The Romanian boxer looked very good clubbing out AJ -- but now he shares a small flat with his brother and has nothing... He says "I have very little talent, but I work very, very hard. Hard work beats great talent and that's why I beat Joshua." ... That's nice -- but anybody can work very, very hard.. Not too many can work very, very smart.. Possibly if you left the army and started a pro career you'd have something to show for all that work.

[Badhusker]

To say that Joshua is the best ever even as an opinion, is absolutely idiotic, in my opinion. He has had 18 fights. Lets see how his career plays out, and see if he actually earns the right to be in that conversation.
Wlad has much more of a claim to be talked about as one of the best, and has the record to prove it. He has more KO's and a higher % KO ratio than even Tyson. Wlad is called boring still. Makes me laugh. I'm not comparing Tyson to Wlad, just saying that Wlad deserves praise as one of the top heavyweights because of what he accomplished. He has fought all comers, and even signed to fight the young lion Joshua, at 41 years old. That takes some guts, and a lot of confidence. Joshua is just getting started.

[candyslim]

Absolutely right. I find the statement in the thread title to be what I'd expect to hear from a twelve year old, and incredibly disrespectful to the great heavyweights of the past ... (and present - Wlad deserves his inclusion).

Having said that, Joshua might very well eventually deserve being talked about in such terms. He could hardly have made a much better start along that road.

Hopefully he will take another step along that road on Saturday.

[pablothunder]

Before u guys get on me. Techniquly in a p4p sense prime ali and prime tyson over any heavyweight ever!

But heavyweight is a special division. It has no weight limit. Thats why aj is the best heavyweight in a non p4p sense. He is more athetic than lewis. Hits as hard as foreman and has ali like speed and the perfect height reach forva heavyweight. Expect easy night with the wrestler.

Sure he may beat Klitschko on the night, but he doesn't move or have the jab of Lewis, there's no available comparison given his opposition so far, that he hits like Foreman. It might be a straight forward night for Joshua, there's also a chance also that he may look one dimensional and short on ideas. His best opponent so far is Dillion Whyte, its all speculation with a good polishing of hype at this point. I'm happy to see whatever the outcome is. The hype is running wild, the realities are all yet to be proven with time.

[hagler81]

I take this to be tongue in cheek. Joshua needs to fight klitshko first and win somehow. He is only potential at the moment. How many times do we see unbeaten ko artists in the heavies fall by the wayside? He is potentially great and good at the moment. A brutal Mike Tyson in his prime with no problems ko's AJ

[Jip]

Before u guys get on me. Techniquly in a p4p sense prime ali and prime tyson over any heavyweight ever!

But heavyweight is a special division. It has no weight limit. Thats why aj is the best heavyweight in a non p4p sense. He is more athetic than lewis. Hits as hard as foreman and has ali like speed and the perfect height reach forva heavyweight. Expect easy night with the wrestler.

Sure he may beat Klitschko on the night, but he doesn't move or have the jab of Lewis, there's no available comparison given his opposition so far, that he hits like Foreman. It might be a straight forward night for Joshua, there's also a chance also that he may look one dimensional and short on ideas. His best opponent so far is Dillion Whyte, its all speculation with a good polishing of hype at this point. I'm happy to see whatever the outcome is. The hype is running wild, the realities are all yet to be proven with time.

For a non expert realities are yet to be proven. I know now that he is the best ever. Seen enough.

[Sequitorian]

... get some rest ...

[Kalan]

I take this to be tongue in cheek. Joshua needs to fight klitshko first and win somehow. He is only potential at the moment. How many times do we see unbeaten ko artists in the heavies fall by the wayside? He is potentially great and good at the moment. A brutal Mike Tyson in his prime with no problems ko's AJ

Come on, that's stupid... There's no way Tyson competes with a man like Joshua.. He couldn't even beat the much smaller 6'4" X 232 Buster Douglas -- because, though Douglas was knocked out by 3 dogs like Mike White.. Buster was a 42/1 underdog, but was too big, strong, fast, and skilled for Tyson.. Then the next time Tyson fought anybody who was any good he faced former Cruiserweight Evander Holyfield.. And lost 2 more..

Some people are still acting like Joshua is David Price, Audley Harrison, Buster Douglas, Hasim Rahman, Tommy Morrison, Gerry Cooney, John Tate, Sam Peter, Michael Grant, Jameel McCline, Robert Helenius, Jess Willard, Mac Foster, Ken Norton, Blue Lewis, Bruce Seldon, Gary Mason and many other Heavyweight fighters who had no talent and no skill -- or no work ethic to make whatever they had work well... Joshua has long since proven that he's the package.. He has the size, the strength, the speed, the skill, and the work ethic.

[hagler81]

I take this to be tongue in cheek. Joshua needs to fight klitshko first and win somehow. He is only potential at the moment. How many times do we see unbeaten ko artists in the heavies fall by the wayside? He is potentially great and good at the moment. A brutal Mike Tyson in his prime with no problems ko's AJ

Come on, that's stupid... There's no way Tyson competes with a man like Joshua.. He couldn't even beat the much smaller 6'4" X 232 Buster Douglas -- because, though Douglas was knocked out by 3 dogs like Mike White.. Buster was a 42/1 underdog, but was too big, strong, fast, and skilled for Tyson.. Then the next time Tyson fought anybody who was any good he faced former Cruiserweight Evander Holyfield.. And lost 2 more..

Some people are still acting like Joshua is David Price, Audley Harrison, Buster Douglas, Hasim Rahman, Tommy Morrison, Gerry Cooney, John Tate, Sam Peter, Michael Grant, Jameel McCline, Robert Helenius, Jess Willard, Mac Foster, Ken Norton, Blue Lewis, Bruce Seldon, Gary Mason and many other Heavyweight fighters who had no talent and no skill -- or no work ethic to make whatever they had work well... Joshua has long since proven that he's the package.. He has the size, the strength, the speed, the skill, and the work ethic.

It is not stupid at all. Tyson had problems out of the ring, he was still one of the most ferocious fighters I have seen although I respect Holyfield as one of the greats too. He bit Holyfield, he wasn't right in the head. Yes Joshua is athletic, big, strong, fast etc but still unproven. Tyson was knocking out everyone too, Spinks etc. Didn't Norton beat Ali? he was to my knowledge a gifted fighter. I know Tyson was a smaller heavy in height but he was just so menacing and powerful. He defeated the bigger British contender Frank Bruno who was like a rabbit in the headlights, just how Joshua would be. Hey trust me I respect Joshua but to call him the greatest heavy of all time? cmon man

[candyslim]

I really like what I see in Joshua and you can't knock what he has achieved so far or the way he has gone about it. I see no glaring weaknesses. People say he's stiff, but that's just a combination of his musculature and his style ... you could describe Joe Louis as stiff largely due to that similarity in style.

People say he has no head-movement and no foot movement, but I say he has great economy of movement: He doesn't waste energy bouncing around the ring on his toes, his movements are purposeful and efficient. He is adept at slipping punches with minor head movements and positional adjustments. He seems to get hit very rarely for a man with (allegedly) poor head-movement even allowing for the fact he hasn't faced an elite level heavyweight at the time of writing.

Having said all this, were I a betting man I'd have bet my house (ok, parents' house) on Big George bludgeoning the ageing Muhammad Ali into retirement. There was no way Ali was going to be able to cope with all that raw power and youthful energy. Well we know how that turned out don't we ?

I was a little more circumspect when it came to Gerry Cooney facing Larry Holmes despite having been won over by the prodigious knock out power demonstrated by the big Irish-American up to that point. Cooney may seem like a storm in a teacup to some of you in retrospect, but if you watched his rise as I did, you'll know that this guy was looking unstoppable. I wasn't amazed at the result though as I'd learned from experience.

Now I'm looking forward to Joshua v Klitschko with great anticipation expecting AJ to demolish this great old champion and cement his right to be considered the new and rightful king. If it should happen that Klitschko finds a way to exploit that inexperience and KO the young pretender then I'll be surprised but not shocked. I've been around a long time and I've seen it happen before.

So I'm a big fan and have very high hopes for Mr Joshua, but when it comes to making bold statements about his future in the game never mind making ludicrous judgements about his all-time standing, I'll reserve the right to consider this again a few years from now.

[verlichte]

A. Josh is the best heavyweight ever.

This is a comically absurd comment!

[cocka09]

Do people still have this opinion after AJ went life and death with a 41 year old, inactive Wlad?

[RScarf1]

Do people still have this opinion after AJ went life and death with a 41 year old, inactive Wlad?

Only the biased ones. It is absurd to say that Joshua is the best heavyweight of all time. In accomplishments and ability, he is far away from that status.