BoxRec

If Joshua loses or struggles to win against a 40+ year old seemingly washed up ex champ, he will be the most over-hyped heavyweight ever.

I am one of the few I guess that think Joshua is in for a tough fight. Its been a long time since Wlad has had something to prove. If he decides to fight, he may just win.

If he's the best ever, then he will surely embarrass the inactive, post-prime 41-year-old he's fighting in his next fight - even though he's by far the stiffest test he will have faced to date. Joshua looks the goods, but no one will truly know how good he is until he steps in with better competition.

With regards to the OP:

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.

I'm not sure Joshua is more athletic than Lewis - he might be, but it's a close call.
Not sure he hits as hard as Foreman either - let's see him in the ring with some guys who are known for their durability first before making that call.
Ali like speed? Not even close. He has fast hands for a big man, no question, but he's a good bit slower than a prime Ali and his feet are actually quite slow. Wlad will have the faster feet and the better jab in this matchup. I hope you're right and Joshua wins, but an upset wouldn't shock me.

SteveDow wrote:Is this thread a joke or what? How on earth can anyone say AJ is the best heavyweight ever based on what we've seen so far?!

that is how you see the world at
age seventeen.

Lennox beats him 8 or 9 times out of 10 for me

Jip wrote: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.

Just lol.

"A. Josh is the best heavyweight ever"

..am I missing sarcasm here?

davie wrote:Lennox beats him 8 or 9 times out of 10 for me

X2

Utterly mad. I'd understand if he'd showed he was durable against a decent opponent, or went rounds with a good opponent, but the pedestal he's on in these fella's eyes is crazy...

What I think is light years ahead from a historic stand point is his apparent mental strength and preparation. He's so calming, you don't have to talk shit to give the fans what they want, you don't have to be a crazy motherfucker either.

I don't like Brits who hate AJ because he's The Man, that's very shallow. We've been blessed with another heavyweight champ, get behind him. Unless you've got a good reason.

davie wrote:Lennox beats him 8 or 9 times out of 10 for me

Ridiculous.. Lewis would be one of Joshua's easiest fights of all the top Heavyweight Champions... Only Tyson, Holyfield, Bowe, Holmes, Louis, and Ali would be easier because they all ate big right hands... You saw what McCall and Rahman did to Lewis with huge right hands... Vitali Klitschko almost knocked Lewis out with right hand shots in the first 2 rounds of their fight. Before he had blood gushing into his left eye to obscure his vision he was hitting Lewis freely with right hand counter shots.. Joshua's right hand leads and counters are 5 X slicker than those 3 champs.. AJ is the master of positioning and timing of the right lead and counter shots.

Kalan wrote:

davie wrote:Lennox beats him 8 or 9 times out of 10 for me

Ridiculous.. Lewis would be one of Joshua's easiest fights of all the top Heavyweight Champions... Only Tyson, Holyfield, Bowe, Holmes, Louis, and Ali would be easier because they all ate big right hands... You saw what McCall and Rahman did to Lewis with huge right hands... Vitali Klitschko almost knocked Lewis out with right hand shots in the first 2 rounds of their fight. Before he had blood gushing into his left eye to obscure his vision he was hitting Lewis freely with right hand counter shots.. Joshua's right hand leads and counters are 5 X slicker than those 3 champs.. AJ is the master of positioning and timing of the right lead and counter shots.

I'm a Joshua fan but this is a really poor post

Joshua isn't the master of anything yet, battering the breazeales and molinas of this world give no basis to say he beats legend x, y or z. To say they ate right hands etc, how would Joshua like Tyson ripping a nasty hook to the body, evander taking him to the trenches and clubbing hooks up top, bowe out fighting him inside... need I go on

Joshua has bags of potential but let's get real and wait for him to get past Wlad first

Kalan wrote:

RScarf1 wrote:I know Joshua trains for hours a day and is in tip-top shape, but so was Ali before he took a three year forced hiatus.

There are many hiatuses for Heavy Champs... Tyson was out 4 years... Foreman was out 10 years... Louis out 4 years for WWII... Dempsey was out 2 years once and 3 years before Tunney between Title Fights... Willard took 4 years off after the Johnson fight... Jeffries was out 6 years... Vitali Klitschko was out 4 years to rehab his legs and came back at 37... Holmes was out 5 years in 2 retirements... So a lot of guys were off longer than Ali.

I wasn't impressed with Ali's strength or conditioning prior to his fights with Young, Norton 1, Spinks 1, Frazier 1, Cooper II, Mildenberger, Chuvalo II, Holmes, Berbick, and just his strength and conditioning in general I guess... Joshua also has better technical skills and doesn't get ripped with left hooks.

AJ hasn't even had a career to take off years from.

IKSRTFO wrote:

Kalan wrote:

RScarf1 wrote:I know Joshua trains for hours a day and is in tip-top shape, but so was Ali before he took a three year forced hiatus.

There are many hiatuses for Heavy Champs... Tyson was out 4 years... Foreman was out 10 years... Louis out 4 years for WWII... Dempsey was out 2 years once and 3 years before Tunney between Title Fights... Willard took 4 years off after the Johnson fight... Jeffries was out 6 years... Vitali Klitschko was out 4 years to rehab his legs and came back at 37... Holmes was out 5 years in 2 retirements... So a lot of guys were off longer than Ali.

I wasn't impressed with Ali's strength or conditioning prior to his fights with Young, Norton 1, Spinks 1, Frazier 1, Cooper II, Mildenberger, Chuvalo II, Holmes, Berbick, and just his strength and conditioning in general I guess... Joshua also has better technical skills and doesn't get ripped with left hooks.

AJ hasn't even had a career to take off years from.

Then what's he been doing since winning Olympic Gold in 2012??? What's he doing as the most respected Heavyweight on the planet??? And what's he doing with a pile of money that only a World Champion can command for a fight??? I'd say he's got his career well established.

I have to confess, I wasn't impressed with Joshua in the Olympic Finals.. I thought he won the Gold Medal but I didn't see any skills.. I've never been impressed by any Olympic Heavyweight Gold Medal winner.. Most of them look like they have 3 months experience. Lomachenko and Rigondeaux looked unbelievably skilled, but most Olympic Champions look so ragged you think they'll never make it as pros. When they turn pro and Boxing becomes their full time job with the world's top trainers you sometimes see dramatic improvements. Joshua looked like a completely different fighter by 2014.

Some of the Russian and Cuban amateurs are already pros in a sense.. Boxing is all they do and that's why they're so good.. Joshua's only been pro for 5 years and he looks like a guy who's been doing it for 15 years.. He's so relaxed, and he picks apart good athletes with similar pro experience like Breazeale.. He made DB look like a raw amateur.. Floyd Patterson also looked phenomenal after only 3 or 4 years as a pro when he destroyed Archie Moore.. My dad was surprised.. He thought Archie would "dust the punk." That's the first time I thought about the concept of age as it pertains to athletes. At some point you start getting worse instead of better.

I'm not sure Patterson got a lot better in the next 5 or 10 years than he was at 21.. And Mike Tyson and Wilfredo Benitez.. When you're brilliant at such a young age, and acknowledged as the best in the world at 20 or 21, It's very difficult to make another big leap forward in the next 5 or 10 years.. Guys who get a late start like Hopkins kept improving on their craft for a lot longer.. I think B-Hop was still making gains up to 37 or 38 because he was making them at 30 and 35 when most guys are coasting.. I don't think Joshua's going to be a coaster.. His desire to improve his skills, when he's already the best ever after only 18 fights, is going to keep propelling him forward.

man wrote:

SteveDow wrote:Is this thread a joke or what? How on earth can anyone say AJ is the best heavyweight ever based on what we've seen so far?!

that is how you see the world at
age seventeen.

x2

Exactly kalan. When u elite u elite. Doesnt matter if you re 20 or 30. When your physical abilities. Skills and training are top of the game than your top . simple as that. No need for 40 fights against other elite to know someone is special. Tyson.jones.trinidad.hoya. i didnt need many fights of them back than to realize that they were amongs the best boxers ive ever seen. Either you got rare talent or udont. Aj has.

He still has a whole lot to do before he's even one of the 50 best Heavyweights ever. He's not even in the conversation yet to be the best heavyweight ever. Unless you're having that conversation with a moron who has no knowledge or respect for the lengthy history of Heavyweight Boxing.

The Current Scene really is complete sh*t right now.

HERE'S THE PROBLEM...

IDIOT STATEMENTS LIKE THIS. Everyone wants to be the first to hit the buzzer on a guy so they go out of their way to attach ridiculousness statements like this to people to gain attention and be first. Because no one will remember it if you're wrong and maybe someone will remember it if you're right.

Go screw. Let's watch the kids career and see what he does when he actually fights someone (and Wlad is not someone btw) before we label him in such a manner. In fact, we might have to wait until the end of his career to make a statement like this

caldo2025 wrote:HERE'S THE PROBLEM...

IDIOT STATEMENTS LIKE THIS. Everyone wants to be the first to hit the buzzer on a guy so they go out of their way to attach ridiculousness statements like this to people to gain attention and be first. Because no one will remember it if you're wrong and maybe someone will remember it if you're right.

Go screw. Let's watch the kids career and see what he does when he actually fights someone (and Wlad is not someone btw) before we label him in such a manner. In fact, we might have to wait until the end of his career to make a statement like this

Well said.

gilgamesh wrote:He still has a whole lot to do before he's even one of the 50 best Heavyweights ever. He's not even in the conversation yet to be the best heavyweight ever. Unless you're having that conversation with a moron who has no knowledge or respect for the lengthy history of Heavyweight Boxing.

..... well

Joshua is incredibly stiff. How anyone can say he is faster or even as quick as Ali, is mind boggling.

As others have mentioned aswell, he has slow feet aswell.

My prediction is that Joshua will probably stop Klitschko in 4 or 5 due to the latter being gun shy. If it goes longer than that though, I think Wlad has a strong chance of winning.

Jip wrote:Exactly kalan. When u elite u elite. Doesnt matter if you re 20 or 30. When your physical abilities. Skills and training are top of the game than your top . simple as that. No need for 40 fights against other elite to know someone is special. Tyson.jones.trinidad.hoya. i didnt need many fights of them back than to realize that they were amongs the best boxers ive ever seen. Either you got rare talent or udont. Aj has.

Joshua might as well retire then! Legacy complete

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

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

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

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

Classic tabloid sh1t.

I wonder what the guy who beat Roy in the olympics is doing. Probably f*ck all.

Ossyrules wrote:

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

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

Classic tabloid sh1t.

I wonder what the guy who beat Roy in the olympics is doing. Probably f*ck all.

That guy didn't really beat Roy. The Romanian stopped Joshua.

boxing_rocks wrote:

Ossyrules wrote:

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

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

Classic tabloid sh1t.

I wonder what the guy who beat Roy in the olympics is doing. Probably f*ck all.

That guy didn't really beat Roy. The Romanian stopped Joshua.

I'm not having a go at you, just the shite the tabloids write up. The point was neither guys are really relevant in a conversation like this, the same as the guy who beat golovkin, who beat Floyd or the few that beat Calzaghe. Defeats happen in ams.