AJ - wilder: thoughts

[Wales]

You think fury is going to fight 4 times from right now til April? I'd bet against that.

Reports are April '18 been agreed.
Fury will clearly fight a no-mark on July 8th, whether he makes 2 more outings or one after that is irrelevant.
my point is neither AJ or Fury will be risked by their promoters prior to a fight next April if true it's been agreed.

Reports are it has: and Wembley has been booked ...

I understood your point, no way in hell fury fights 4 times in 9 months. Sorry for not knowing it was irrelevant when I read it in your post.

Considering he's fought twice in two and a half years it's very valid!! You have to question if he'll even fulfill his commitment in July

[SaadOffTheDeck]

Reports are April '18 been agreed.
Fury will clearly fight a no-mark on July 8th, whether he makes 2 more outings or one after that is irrelevant.
my point is neither AJ or Fury will be risked by their promoters prior to a fight next April if true it's been agreed.

Reports are it has: and Wembley has been booked ...

I understood your point, no way in hell fury fights 4 times in 9 months. Sorry for not knowing it was irrelevant when I read it in your post.

Considering he's fought twice in two and a half years it's very valid!! You have to question if he'll even fulfill his commitment in July

I certainly don't expect to see him in July. Booking a venue isn't a big deal. Better chance he never fights again then that run happening. Hopefully he does come back. One things pretty clear, they're having trouble getting around those suspensions.

[man]

boxing is a mind's game, especially at top
level. fury played a very cocky game, that
was part of his fighting persona. if you take
that away, it would require enormous discipline
to find another way.

in fury's case this would even mean a change
in personality and i think that won't happen.
he was not injured and is getting back, he
basically had a full blown several month lasting
psychological break down. never heard of a
fighter who managed to overcome something
like that.

i am pretty sure the tyson fury story is ... over.

[bigman1968]

Wilder simply doesn't deserve a shot, Wilder shouldn't skip Povetkin, Takam, Klitschko, Hughie, Pulev, and so on and straight away move to Joshua lol. That's rediculous, if I eat myself till I'm fat, or send a tall Dutch guy and then ask AJ for a bunch of millions it would be ridiculous as well.

He's wbc champion the fight makes sense

I'd even prefere to see Briggs his WBA belt and if I were Joshua I would try to get that. But perhaps Wilder could try to get that belt as well, by risking his own belt, then the fight would make at least a bit more sense.

Just curious...How old are you?

[bigman1968]

If reports are true that AJ against Fury has been agreed for April 2018 , at Wembley stadium in the U.K. then you can forget AJ Wilder. Nothing will be allowed to risk scuppering a AJ Fury fight, so expect AJ to fight a fringe top 10 guy and Fury to have two low key tune ups before facing a mediocre top 15 type opponent.

Who can trust Fury to commit on something??? And a year from now???

In 12 months he can be "injured" 12 times, gain&lose&gane 150kg of weight, caught on 12 different drugs and became hinduist and when, buddist

[caldo2025]

I've said a couple of times on here that I could see this being a carbon copy of the Martin fight with AJ's superior technique more likely to mean he would be first to land the big shots.

Having said that I think it more likely that the first few rounds will be extremely cagey with both conscious of the other's ability to end it quickly. Whatever Wilder's flaws and he has them in abundance, he remains the most prodigious puncher in the division (albeit not the most correct) and if he were to nail Joshua as Klitschko did in the sixth, I'm sure he would not let him off the hook. (or should that be 'the straight right'?)

You can never write off Wilder because of his fearsome firepower but AJ is by far the better all round fighter and I feel the likelihood is that he will get to Wilder first and stop him.

No way that this fight resembles the Martin/AJ fight. Martin was an absolute fish. He won the title because of an injury. Wilder has been protected and nursed obviously but I still think that he's the most dangerous boxer to AJ's belts. He's going to be the stiffest test for sure. AJ can be hurt. If a 41 year old guy can almost knock him out after almost 2 years of inactivity, I'm sure that Wilder could with 37 of 38 fights ending in KO.

The LAST thing that i want to see is for AJ to sign a fight with Fury. NO ONE over here in the states cares about that fight AT ALL. We all just wished that Fury would stay away and stop mucking up an exciting division with his dumb insertions into relevance.

Think about the punch that Wlad landed to put down Joshua...

The fact that wilder has 37/38 ko has nothing to do with it. Joshua was tiring and Wlad lined him up for a perfect straight right on the button. Wilder doesn't throw punches like that. So the comparison doesn't really hold weight.

- I doubt wilder has the ringcraft to frustrate Joshua for 5 before he's able to explode. Meaning Joshua is less likely to be fatigued from rounds and missing punches

- wilder could win this fight, but it's likely his stoppage punch is going to be a right hand from high and wide

- despite the Wlad fight, Joshua has shown himself to be the technically sounder imo and more dominant in dictating proceedings in a fight. This swings the likelihood of landing power shots his way

- both have been hurt, but the Joshua chin is more proven than Wilders imo

Joshua stops wilder within the first 6

I think that the biggest factor comes down to WHEN this fight takes place. IMO Anthony Joshua is beatable right now and is rather ripe for the picking because he hasn't learned yet how to harness his energy and lacks the maturity inside the ring that comes with longevity and surrounding yourself with the best of the best. AJ could end up being an all time great fighter and he's just going to get better and better and better so now is the time for Wilder. In AJ's two toughest fights, he punched himself out and almost lost him the fights (Whyte/WK). In both fights, he found a way to win but Wilder is a closer and he has the energy that neither Whyte or WK had to close the show.

Wilder is as good as he's going to get right now. He's reached his ceiling. AJ hasn't even tapped into his talent reserves yet. He's going to develop all sorts of new tools along the way like Lennox did and just get better.

It all comes down to timing on this one.

[Nightmare Roy]

i feel like AJ knocks him into next week. he just has to be careful of a few wide swings.

Pretty much this, Lewis Grant mk2.

[asdfjkl]

He's wbc champion the fight makes sense

I'd even prefere to see Briggs his WBA belt and if I were Joshua I would try to get that. But perhaps Wilder could try to get that belt as well, by risking his own belt, then the fight would make at least a bit more sense.

Just curious...How old are you?

Doesn't really matter, but most people my age are more mature as you are.

[bigman1968]

I'd even prefere to see Briggs his WBA belt and if I were Joshua I would try to get that. But perhaps Wilder could try to get that belt as well, by risking his own belt, then the fight would make at least a bit more sense.

Just curious...How old are you?

Doesn't really matter, but most people my age are more mature as you are.

I really hope, for you, that you are very very young-))))

[Oiky]

An exciting fight that could end in KO at any moment

[asdfjkl]

Just curious...How old are you?

Doesn't really matter, but most people my age are more mature as you are.

I really hope, for you, that you are very very young-))))

Similarly -))))

[candyslim]

Gotta favor aj, wilder has a chance with anyone. Deontay is awkward, vulnerable & deadly. That's why he's fun to watch. It's pretty easy to envision him beating or losing to virtually any decent heavyweight.

I'd swap the word "top" for "decent" but other than that I agree with every word. Stone me "Saad", that's a bit of an about-face isn't it? Were you on the road to Damascus or somewhere

I think that the biggest factor comes down to WHEN this fight takes place. IMO Anthony Joshua is beatable right now and is rather ripe for the picking because he hasn't learned yet how to harness his energy and lacks the maturity inside the ring that comes with longevity and surrounding yourself with the best of the best. AJ could end up being an all time great fighter and he's just going to get better and better and better so now is the time for Wilder. In AJ's two toughest fights, he punched himself out and almost lost him the fights (Whyte/WK). In both fights, he found a way to win but Wilder is a closer and he has the energy that neither Whyte or WK had to close the show.

Wilder is as good as he's going to get right now. He's reached his ceiling. AJ hasn't even tapped into his talent reserves yet. He's going to develop all sorts of new tools along the way like Lennox did and just get better.

It all comes down to timing on this one.

I agree with all that too. I know pressure is building for AJ to forget Fury or whoever, and fight Wilder for the unified titles. Some thoughts on that:

1) Firstly I think having been through a war with Klitschko, AJ deserves to have a relatively easy defence. I'd like to see Ortiz get the chance while he can still get around unaided, but he represents a risk to the unification fight, although I'd favour AJ to beat him right now but not without another grueling struggle. It speaks volumes for Joshua that we can consider Pulev an easy defence, but that would be my choice because it satisfies one of his two mandatories and I don't see Pulev as having the power to trouble Anthony.

2) For the same reason (risk of missing the main unification fight) I'd give Parker a miss. Again I'd expect AJ to win but this doesn't go with my suggestion that Anthony deserves an easy defence.

3) Fury needs to get himself back in condition and have a warm up or three before seriously thinking about tackling Joshua. He is not in the picture right now.

4) Wilder is the option we are most looking forward to for sure, but it makes sense to let it mature from AJ's and Eddie Hearn's point of view while interest and speculation comes to the boil. As Caldo quite rightly says, the sooner it happens the better it is for Wilder so for Joshua it pays to wait.

Besides, why risk his three belts against the divisions hardest puncher, when he could enjoy the fruits of his labour attending to his mandatories thereby retaining his belts in relatively low risk fights, certainly in the case of Pulev, and probably Ortiz too if he would be willing to accept step-aside money while getting even older.

Before anyone of similar outlook to Nestor Gibbs (TBV) starts berating AJ for not rushing to sign for a unification with Deontay, just ask yourself "Is it fair to expect AJ to fight Klitschko and Wilder in back to back fights?".

Deontay has been WBC champ for two and a half years (and with the exception of Povetkin, who was taken out of the equation by Vada, Wada, or Rada or whatever the fork they call themselves, as soon as it became apparent he represented a clear and present danger to the USA's finest) he doesn't seem too overcome with an irrepressible urge to fight anyone with more than a 20% chance of beating him.

In fact at the risk of appearing cynical, I'm quite certain that if AJ were Nigerian rather than British of Nigerian parentage, with all the financial implications that would entail, then Deontay wouldn't be half as keen to meet him in a unification fight rather than Parker.

[Kalan]

I see AJ taking it by KO or decision.

The biggest problem for Joshua is on the experience side. The Klitschko fight was great for him because Wlad has so many tricks to open you up for a power shot. WK jabs so much Joshua was keying off his jab and countering with his own jab, left hook, and right. AJ was boxing well through 5.

AJ had never been 12 rounds and he just won a 2-point round in the 5th. He was trying to conserve energy in the 6th, work his defense, and get a jab to counter. Wlad was reading his mind. He popped off a couple quick jabs that didn't have anything on them. Joshua slipped them expertly. Wlad gave a very subtle feint with his left and threw a straight right that ripped inside of Joshua's guard and nailed him solidly on the chin. AJ went down and he was hurt. Wladimir tried hard to finish, but AJ was more alert defensively after that and didn't get suckered into anymore big punches.

Joshua displayed some real craft in the 11th. He got Klitschko to throw a big right that he rolled under. As he rolled back up he nailed Wlad with a brilliant left hook-right uppercut combo and Wlad was his. It was a matter of finishing him off efficiently not screwing it up. More fights like this are just what AJ needs. He's got 55 rounds. Man, that's a low number and most of his opponents haven't shown him much.

In Wilder's last fight he fought a real novice, but lost the first 4 rounds. The whole fight Deontay was focused - not on out-boxing and outscoring Washington, but on landing a KO punch. Washington gave him a score of chances to do that. Even though the ex-football player was winning the fight through 4, he was extremely uncomfortable and Wilder wasn't worried about being behind on the cards. He knew Washington was screwing up a lot. He nailed Washington in the 5th and that was it. Wilder can get anybody out he hits, but he's not going to nail a real good experienced boxer like he did GW.

[493dart]

A lot of people forgot about the fact that Wilder throws a mean , nasty straight right . Everyone assumes he just windmills punches........not true.

I still think AJ can beat him by ko.

Unless Wilder can use his huge reach and awkward style and speed to fire that right onto Joshuas face.......