The excuse of Joshua to avoid Ortiz and Wilder is...

[Badhusker]

AJ has to fight his mandatory(PULEV)---just like WILDER has to(STIVERNE)---neither 1 is ducking people.

Both can skip mandatories for unification fights I believe.

Anyone please correct me if I am wrong. Joshua could fight Wilder next. Pulev isn't that good, imo.

He can't as Pulev has been delayed so long, the IBF have said they can't swerve him even for a unification according to Hearn.

Joshua could fight Wilder next and get stripped by the IBF. Didn't he say he didn't give a fornicate about belts? Is he back caring about the belts again now? Wilder would be more money, but maybe they need to let it marinate for a while. Most people bitch constantly about Wilder's competition (and rightfully so) but when he wants to step up, you hear nothing, especially no criticism of Joshua for not making the fight fans want to see.

[crusader]

It's easy to say you want to fight the best, but your words have limited credibility when you continually fight mediocre opposition (just one consensus top 10 opponent in nearly 40 bouts).

[Nightmare Roy]

Both can skip mandatories for unification fights I believe.

Anyone please correct me if I am wrong. Joshua could fight Wilder next. Pulev isn't that good, imo.

He can't as Pulev has been delayed so long, the IBF have said they can't swerve him even for a unification according to Hearn.

Joshua could fight Wilder next and get stripped by the IBF. Didn't he say he didn't give a eff about belts? Is he back caring about the belts again now? Wilder would be more money, but maybe they need to let it marinate for a while. Most people bitch constantly about Wilder's competition (and rightfully so) but when he wants to step up, you hear nothing, especially no criticism of Joshua for not making the fight fans want to see.

Wilder has been a pro for FIVE years more than AJ and fought fcuking nobody, he's just turned down Whyte for millions, do you really think he and his people want the AJ fight? Why should he give up his titles?
As for more money, Wilder has a low profile, again due to fighting nobody, he should come to the UK fight Whyte, build his profile and then it's a big money fight vs AJ. Britian is the epicentre of boxing now not the US. AJ is ducking nobody, Hearn has laid out a plan to get and keep all the gold, Pulev, Otis and then Wilder.

[gilgamesh]

Now, Klitschko and Tyson Fury are out.

The excuse of Joshua to avoid Ortiz (#1 WBA, #2WBC) and Wilder (WBC world champion) is ....... Pulev.

Yes, it's Pulev, the #2 IBF who became mandatory challenger for the IBF world title after that Parker the former #1 IBF and #1 WBO fight for the vacant WBO world title.
Yes, the same Pulev who was drilled by Klitschko in a one sided fight after only 5 rounds.
Yes, the same Pulev who declined a fight against Joshua last year for an unkown reason (afraid ?).
I don't be surprise if at the last time Pulev declines the fight against Joshua again.
If think that the initial plan of Pulev was to fight for the vacant IBF title against Carlos Takam ( #3 IBF) after that Joshua or Klitschko become WBA/IBF champion because he thought that the winner wants to fight Wilder, Ortiz, Fury or do a rematch in priority.

Now Josha is showing to the world that he is ducking two of the most dangerous fighters (Wilder and Ortiz) to fight a fake mandatory challenger who is very less dangerous.

Wilder doesn't fight Top 10 guys. So that's why THAT'S not happening.

There's no excuse for either of them to be avoiding Ortiz.

[Ossyrules]

There's clearly people (American wilder fans/badhusker) clutching at straws if they're trying to make a case that Joshua is ducking opponents.

The irony is in another level, and the boxing knowledge worrying

[gilgamesh]

I'm American, and I HATE Wilder. Mainly because he's an absolute disgrace.

This is going to be the 2nd Top 10 ranked opponent that Joshua has defended against. Wilder still doesn't have 1.

[Ossyrules]

I'm American, and I HATE Wilder. Mainly because he's an absolute disgrace.

This is going to be the 2nd Top 10 ranked opponent that Joshua has defended against. Wilder still doesn't have 1.

Yes I don't mean to blanket all American fans, just the badhuskers

[cpfc_fan]

All of the talk about ducking/not ducking is a moot point really. The reality is a fairly simple equation;
- Who is available
- Who makes the most commercial sense in a marketable fight

The relative strengths and weaknesses of the opponents come a distant afterthought behind those. The Matchroom stable have shown time and again that they will take the most lucrative fight irrespective of how good the opponent is. If anyone genuinely believes Ortiz is "being ducked" because AJ's team think he might lose is in cukoo land. If Ortiz doesn't fight AJ it is for one very simple reason...he generates less pound coins than an alternative. As soon as Ortiz becomes the most lucrative option, the fight will probably get made.

As for Wilder, I appreciate that, because of his vastly inferior pulling power at the ticket office, keeping his belt is the best way to stay relevant; hence his list of opponents. But there will be a tipping point (measured in bundles of cash) where the risk of losing the belt is worth the purse; probably in a fight in the UK against Joshua.

[joe strong]

I'm getting sick of Ortiz. I hope he fights Wilder and gets exposed. Ortiz is a limited guy. He's looked horrendous as of late. No one is ducking him.

Pulev is arguably a better win than Wilder and Ortiz. Pulev was the consensus #2 HW in the world after Klitschko beat Povetkin, and he's still a top HW. His only loss is to the p4p, undefeated version of Klitschko. When have Wilder and Ortiz been the #2 HW in the world?

To me Pulev has carefully selected his opponents. The best guy he fought is obviously Klitschko who destroyed him. What is his best win? The guys with names he beat are Sam Peter who was fat & retired before fighting him. Kevin Johnson who was retired & hadn't beaten anyone in a lot of years. Alexander Dimitrenko who turned out to be overrated after losing to Chambers. Tony Thompson who was 43. Alexander Ustinov & Chisora were his best wins. His best win is a close 12 round decision win over Dereck Chisora. So what makes Pulev rated so high?

[crusader]

Pulev handily beat Chisora...have people actually seen the fight? Ya, one judge turned in an awful card for Chisora, but that shouldn't be a knock on Pulev.

I don't think Pulev would be a better win than Wilder or Ortiz though.

[Ossyrules]

We have to be clear here, without rewatching the fight, Del Boy won no more than about 3 rounds, 4 rounds max. He was clearly beaten by the more skilled outside fighter, pulev. Fury had already laid that blue print, if your jab is good and rangey Del Boy will have problems closing the gap

We have to keep Ortiz in perspective too, as while he looked great battering Jennings and Thompson, he looked real ordinary vs Allen and Scott. Allen and Scott last about 5 rounds combined vs joshua

[Badhusker]

We have to be clear here, without rewatching the fight, Del Boy won no more than about 3 rounds, 4 rounds max. He was clearly beaten by the more skilled outside fighter, pulev. Fury had already laid that blue print, if your jab is good and rangey Del Boy will have problems closing the gap

We have to keep Ortiz in perspective too, as while he looked great battering Jennings and Thompson, he looked real ordinary vs Allen and Scott. Allen and Scott last about 5 rounds combined vs joshua

I didn't see the Allen fight, but Scott just ran and hid the entire fight, or he would have been KO'd early. If Ortiz isn't all that good, why did Joshua pick Breazeale over him, after he lost every round against a 43 yr old Mansour?

[Lackeos]

I'm getting sick of Ortiz. I hope he fights Wilder and gets exposed. Ortiz is a limited guy. He's looked horrendous as of late. No one is ducking him.

Pulev is arguably a better win than Wilder and Ortiz. Pulev was the consensus #2 HW in the world after Klitschko beat Povetkin, and he's still a top HW. His only loss is to the p4p, undefeated version of Klitschko. When have Wilder and Ortiz been the #2 HW in the world?

To me Pulev has carefully selected his opponents. The best guy he fought is obviously Klitschko who destroyed him. What is his best win? The guys with names he beat are Sam Peter who was fat & retired before fighting him. Kevin Johnson who was retired & hadn't beaten anyone in a lot of years. Alexander Dimitrenko who turned out to be overrated after losing to Chambers. Tony Thompson who was 43. Alexander Ustinov & Chisora were his best wins. His best win is a close 12 round decision win over Dereck Chisora. So what makes Pulev rated so high?

Tony Thompson was top 15 going into that fight and Dereck Chisora was borderline top 10 going into that fight. A boxing fan would know this.

[Nightmare Roy]

We have to be clear here, without rewatching the fight, Del Boy won no more than about 3 rounds, 4 rounds max. He was clearly beaten by the more skilled outside fighter, pulev. Fury had already laid that blue print, if your jab is good and rangey Del Boy will have problems closing the gap

We have to keep Ortiz in perspective too, as while he looked great battering Jennings and Thompson, he looked real ordinary vs Allen and Scott. Allen and Scott last about 5 rounds combined vs joshua

I didn't see the Allen fight, but Scott just ran and hid the entire fight, or he would have been KO'd early. If Ortiz isn't all that good, why did Joshua pick Breazeale over him, after he lost every round against a 43 yr old Mansour?

Sorry mate you don't have to like AJ but if you think he's ducking anyone you are mad, he won the world title in his 16th fight and defended it against a GOAT in his 19th. His progress has been insane!

[Ossyrules]

We have to be clear here, without rewatching the fight, Del Boy won no more than about 3 rounds, 4 rounds max. He was clearly beaten by the more skilled outside fighter, pulev. Fury had already laid that blue print, if your jab is good and rangey Del Boy will have problems closing the gap

We have to keep Ortiz in perspective too, as while he looked great battering Jennings and Thompson, he looked real ordinary vs Allen and Scott. Allen and Scott last about 5 rounds combined vs joshua

I didn't see the Allen fight, but Scott just ran and hid the entire fight, or he would have been KO'd early. If Ortiz isn't all that good, why did Joshua pick Breazeale over him, after he lost every round against a 43 yr old Mansour?

I don't think Ortiz is bad, you've misunderstood that, but he's not the second coming of tyson either, hence why I said "perspective"

[cpfc_fan]

We have to be clear here, without rewatching the fight, Del Boy won no more than about 3 rounds, 4 rounds max. He was clearly beaten by the more skilled outside fighter, pulev. Fury had already laid that blue print, if your jab is good and rangey Del Boy will have problems closing the gap

We have to keep Ortiz in perspective too, as while he looked great battering Jennings and Thompson, he looked real ordinary vs Allen and Scott. Allen and Scott last about 5 rounds combined vs joshua

I didn't see the Allen fight, but Scott just ran and hid the entire fight, or he would have been KO'd early. If Ortiz isn't all that good, why did Joshua pick Breazeale over him, after he lost every round against a 43 yr old Mansour?

This is very simple.
Because Hearn was busy trying to raise Ortiz's profile in the UK...and thus generate more income when the two eventually fought. That was why Ortiz aligned with matchroom and fought Allen - an opponent already known to UK fans, with the Scott fight also shown on Sky.

Unfortunately for Ortiz, he did relatively poorly in both fights which meant a fight with AJ would still do relatively poorly from a commercial sense. I don't doubt for a nano-second that if Ortiz won both with spectacular KO's, we would already have done our £20 sky PPV to watch AJ v Ortiz.

If you genuinely believe Joshua has not fought Ortiz because he is scared he might lose, I think you a huge misgivings about a boxers mentality.

[Nightmare Roy]

We have to be clear here, without rewatching the fight, Del Boy won no more than about 3 rounds, 4 rounds max. He was clearly beaten by the more skilled outside fighter, pulev. Fury had already laid that blue print, if your jab is good and rangey Del Boy will have problems closing the gap

We have to keep Ortiz in perspective too, as while he looked great battering Jennings and Thompson, he looked real ordinary vs Allen and Scott. Allen and Scott last about 5 rounds combined vs joshua

I didn't see the Allen fight, but Scott just ran and hid the entire fight, or he would have been KO'd early. If Ortiz isn't all that good, why did Joshua pick Breazeale over him, after he lost every round against a 43 yr old Mansour?

This is very simple.
Because Hearn was busy trying to raise Ortiz's profile in the UK...and thus generate more income when the two eventually fought. That was why Ortiz aligned with matchroom and fought Allen - an opponent already known to UK fans, with the Scott fight also shown on Sky.

Unfortunately for Ortiz, he did relatively poorly in both fights which meant a fight with AJ would still do relatively poorly from a commercial sense. I don't doubt for a nano-second that if Ortiz won both with spectacular KO's, we would already have done our £20 sky PPV to watch AJ v Ortiz.

If you genuinely believe Joshua has not fought Ortiz because he is scared he might lose, I think you a huge misgivings about a boxers mentality.

Great post, I genuinely 100% believe that there isn't a HW in the world that AJ or Heant would want to avoid.

[Ossyrules]

We have to be clear here, without rewatching the fight, Del Boy won no more than about 3 rounds, 4 rounds max. He was clearly beaten by the more skilled outside fighter, pulev. Fury had already laid that blue print, if your jab is good and rangey Del Boy will have problems closing the gap

We have to keep Ortiz in perspective too, as while he looked great battering Jennings and Thompson, he looked real ordinary vs Allen and Scott. Allen and Scott last about 5 rounds combined vs joshua

I didn't see the Allen fight, but Scott just ran and hid the entire fight, or he would have been KO'd early. If Ortiz isn't all that good, why did Joshua pick Breazeale over him, after he lost every round against a 43 yr old Mansour?

This is very simple.
Because Hearn was busy trying to raise Ortiz's profile in the UK...and thus generate more income when the two eventually fought. That was why Ortiz aligned with matchroom and fought Allen - an opponent already known to UK fans, with the Scott fight also shown on Sky.

Unfortunately for Ortiz, he did relatively poorly in both fights which meant a fight with AJ would still do relatively poorly from a commercial sense. I don't doubt for a nano-second that if Ortiz won both with spectacular KO's, we would already have done our £20 sky PPV to watch AJ v Ortiz.

If you genuinely believe Joshua has not fought Ortiz because he is scared he might lose, I think you a huge misgivings about a boxers mentality.

Yes well said. However the haters like badhuskers who are clinging to their American non fighting hope in wilder will still call it a duck. Casuals

[punchoutsb]

I will never understand how Ortiz has gotten so overrated.

[SaadOffTheDeck]

I will never understand how Ortiz has gotten so overrated.

A loss to wilder will fix that in a hurry. He'd be a bum overnight.

[gilgamesh]

I will never understand how Ortiz has gotten so overrated.

I was excited about him after he dismantled Bryant Jennings, but he hasn't impressed since, and given that he's in his early 40's now I don't look for him to be all that big of a threat to the dudes at the top. He's a challenger deserving of a shot though, and I'd be happy to see him get a shot against any of the titleholders. I'd favor him to beat Parker. Him vs Wilder is 50/50. Joshua would beat him.

[Ossyrules]

I will never understand how Ortiz has gotten so overrated.

I was excited about him after he dismantled Bryant Jennings, but he hasn't impressed since, and given that he's in his early 40's now I don't look for him to be all that big of a threat to the dudes at the top. He's a challenger deserving of a shot though, and I'd be happy to see him get a shot against any of the titleholders. I'd favor him to beat Parker. Him vs Wilder is 50/50. Joshua would beat him.

Agree, he's a nightmare for Parker. More skilled and technically better, good power and basic strength. Parker has youth and freshness, but he is so open a good boxer gives him an easy chin test. Parkers too raw, green and basically not good enough to beat him I think.

Wilder. I slightly favour Ortiz. The wilder that fought stiverne would have decent chance, rangey jab and demonstrating some boxing. If he fights like he does in all his other bouts, wilder goes to wobble town before he gets painfully stopped.

Joshua. Ortiz is a tough fight for Joshua, but Joshua's higher level in most aspects of boxing over wilder. Joshua dominates fights (except Wlad), wilder doesn't but his power bails him out. % wise I favour Joshua basically boxing with more authority than what wilder could and create more openings for the big shots

[joe strong]

I'm getting sick of Ortiz. I hope he fights Wilder and gets exposed. Ortiz is a limited guy. He's looked horrendous as of late. No one is ducking him.

Pulev is arguably a better win than Wilder and Ortiz. Pulev was the consensus #2 HW in the world after Klitschko beat Povetkin, and he's still a top HW. His only loss is to the p4p, undefeated version of Klitschko. When have Wilder and Ortiz been the #2 HW in the world?

To me Pulev has carefully selected his opponents. The best guy he fought is obviously Klitschko who destroyed him. What is his best win? The guys with names he beat are Sam Peter who was fat & retired before fighting him. Kevin Johnson who was retired & hadn't beaten anyone in a lot of years. Alexander Dimitrenko who turned out to be overrated after losing to Chambers. Tony Thompson who was 43. Alexander Ustinov & Chisora were his best wins. His best win is a close 12 round decision win over Dereck Chisora. So what makes Pulev rated so high?

Tony Thompson was top 15 going into that fight and Dereck Chisora was borderline top 10 going into that fight. A boxing fan would know this.

I do know this but Thompson was still 43 years old. Chisora is his best win am I wrong?

[crusader]

Thompson beat Price right before and Solis right after the Pulev bout. He was old, but still a contender.

[asdfjkl]

Now, Klitschko and Tyson Fury are out.

The excuse of Joshua to avoid Ortiz (#1 WBA, #2WBC) and Wilder (WBC world champion) is ....... Pulev.

Yes, it's Pulev, the #2 IBF who became mandatory challenger for the IBF world title after that Parker the former #1 IBF and #1 WBO fight for the vacant WBO world title.
Yes, the same Pulev who was drilled by Klitschko in a one sided fight after only 5 rounds.
Yes, the same Pulev who declined a fight against Joshua last year for an unkown reason (afraid ?).
I don't be surprise if at the last time Pulev declines the fight against Joshua again.
If think that the initial plan of Pulev was to fight for the vacant IBF title against Carlos Takam ( #3 IBF) after that Joshua or Klitschko become WBA/IBF champion because he thought that the winner wants to fight Wilder, Ortiz, Fury or do a rematch in priority.

Now Josha is showing to the world that he is ducking two of the most dangerous fighters (Wilder and Ortiz) to fight a fake mandatory challenger who is very less dangerous.

Wilder doesn't fight Top 10 guys. So that's why THAT'S not happening.

There's no excuse for either of them to be avoiding Ortiz.

One way or another, Pulev is still way, way better as anyone Wilder has ever achieved a win against.