BoxRec

Ossyrules wrote:

Badhusker wrote:Lets not get too carried away. Joshua has a legitimate claim as the top dog in the division, for now, but his biggest win was over a 41yr old Wlad, and was let off the hook when Wlad should have finished him.
Some of you guys think he an ATG already. We'll see how the rematch goes. Before Wlad his resume was about as pathetic as Wilder's.

Not claiming that he's an ATG, but he got the win over Wlad, who despite his age, looked as good as ever. Vitali said it was career best performance from wlad. Tactical error thinking he'd slowly wear him down when AJ regrouped. That's sport.

Wilder comparison isn't on. Josh had fought about 50 rounds prior to Wlad. His resume isn't going to be stacked is it. Wilders had much more fights to develop and build a CV.

Let me ask you this......how would you rate Joshua if he would have been KO'd by Wlad? Wlad had 2-3 rounds to get it done, and if not over 40 I'm sure he would have. Would have Joshua's hype train crashed?

Badhusker wrote:

Ossyrules wrote:

Badhusker wrote:Lets not get too carried away. Joshua has a legitimate claim as the top dog in the division, for now, but his biggest win was over a 41yr old Wlad, and was let off the hook when Wlad should have finished him.
Some of you guys think he an ATG already. We'll see how the rematch goes. Before Wlad his resume was about as pathetic as Wilder's.

Not claiming that he's an ATG, but he got the win over Wlad, who despite his age, looked as good as ever. Vitali said it was career best performance from wlad. Tactical error thinking he'd slowly wear him down when AJ regrouped. That's sport.

Wilder comparison isn't on. Josh had fought about 50 rounds prior to Wlad. His resume isn't going to be stacked is it. Wilders had much more fights to develop and build a CV.

Let me ask you this......how would you rate Joshua if he would have been KO'd by Wlad? Wlad had 2-3 rounds to get it done, and if not over 40 I'm sure he would have. Would have Joshua's hype train crashed?

Of course if Joshua got beat it'd be different. As we'd be assessing a fighter with different history. But I'm really not one to assess hypotheticals that haven't happened.

Wlad may have got him out there in days gone by. Not so much cos of his age though, cos he was as fit and as ready as ever as far as I'm concerned, but manny steward would have demanded it. But Johnathan banks and Vitali were In His corner and they gave him the advice. That Joshua was finished, don't do anything silly, this guy is gone. But as per the whyte fight, Joshua and the power of youth meant he could recharge and go again. Let's be clear, Wlad has not been and never has been a killer. He's not mike Tyson or big George and when they smell the opponent is ready they go all in. That's not wlads nature. He's a percentage fighter, he's had opponents more than ready before and has taken his time to take them out. I've heard steward screaming at him in the past to step on it, wlads reply was "relax manny I'm in control". Saying younger than 40 Wlad gets Joshua out there is not a sure thing, far from it.

So I'll stick to assessing what has actually happened

I think the division offers more opportunities for Joshua than it did for Wlad at the dawn of his prime in 2006. More decent amateurs on the horizon as well. But as I've said in another thread, if Tyson Fury had stuck to boxing, then the rivalry between Joshua and Fury could've offered us a lot more.

My concern, which I don't think the thread has done much justice, is that a lot of the top heavyweights are going to age out of their primes before we get the big payoff from them. I'm referring to fighters like Povetkin, Pulev, and Ortiz, who are splendid contenders, but are all aged 36-38 years. There's a lot of other heavyweights like Malik Scott, Lucas Browne, Carlos Takam, David Haye, Alexander Ustinov, Amir Mansour, and Johann Duhaupas who are also 36+. Plus, Jun Long Zhang and Zhilei Zhang are 35 and 34 and still haven't fought anyone. I think, in order for proper passing of the torch, we need to get some young guys defeating these old guys right this instant before they get any older and wins against them lose any meaning.