BoxRec

crusader wrote:How often their opponents landed is hardly a good measure of hand speed.

I've watched plenty of their bouts and AJ's hand speed is about average, with Martin having a slight edge IMO. I don't at all get what people are seeing when they suggest that AJ is impressively fast; hugely powerful, sure, but his speed in the ring is nothing special.

How can he fight a whole fight while only beïng touched once or twice a match. And really do mean touched, they really weren't serious punches.

You have to be at least skilled and at least a tiny bit fast to achieve something like that.

I'd say his destructive offense plays a large part, as it puts opponents in a shell and makes them reluctant to throw back. He's got some skill, no denying that, but I just don't think his speed is anything special and I've tried hard to see the fast hands others talk about.

crusader wrote:Watching clips of both of them one thing that strikes me is that they both put their shots together relatively well. I'd say Martin's hands are a bit faster (I really don't know why so many think Joshua has good hand speed!), but he looks even stiffer on his legs than Joshua, is sloppier from a technical standpoint, and despite having a fancy KO ratio I doubt that he can hang with AJ in the power or physical strength departments. IMO AJ should take this by stoppage without facing major problems, though I don't think Martin is as bad as some believe.

I am surprised that you would think that. Joshua's hands are LOT faster then Martins in my opinion. Lot snappier, reaction is lot quicker. I generally think that Joshua has very good handspeed for a big man. Martin on the other hand seems very sluggish. I guess we will see it best when they are facing each other in the ring.

I think AJ's speed is perhaps his most overrated quality....I'm just not seeing impressively fast hands and I've tried repeatedly to see what others are talking about.

Martin is stiff on his legs but I think he gets his punches out a bit more quickly.

I, unlike many others, have gone for Joshua on points. The nature of Martin's win over Glazkov has perhaps given people the opinion that he isn't a skilled fighter. In all honesty, Martin isn't one of the best champions I have seen, but he looked competent in those opening rounds and was the better man.

My opinion on Joshua flipped 180 after the Whyte fight. It is obvious that the man carries a lot of power, but his head movement was poor, so I can see King Charles getting some offensive in. AJ massively needs to work on his head and body movement or some of the better fighters in the division will be able to tag him.

I think it will be a decent fight, and hope that Joshua will have learned from his last fight.

Martin fought absolutely nobody before Glazkov and didn't demonstrate much against Glazkov. I think current 1/6 odds for Joshua are fair and he will dispose of Martin without serious problems.

Batley18 wrote:I, unlike many others, have gone for Joshua on points. The nature of Martin's win over Glazkov has perhaps given people the opinion that he isn't a skilled fighter. In all honesty, Martin isn't one of the best champions I have seen, but he looked competent in those opening rounds and was the better man.

My opinion on Joshua flipped 180 after the Whyte fight. It is obvious that the man carries a lot of power, but his head movement was poor, so I can see King Charles getting some offensive in. AJ massively needs to work on his head and body movement or some of the better fighters in the division will be able to tag him.

I think it will be a decent fight, and hope that Joshua will have learned from his last fight.

I was also surprised about Whyte, but I consider an in shape Whyte to be better as any American out there at this moment.

Joshua is fast, he can fire off a lot of shots in combination very well for a big man and guys can't deal with it. I don't think it's just the power in those combos that causes his opponents problems, it's also the volume he gets in while they're in the corner or against the ropes. If he wasn't fast he simply wouldn't be able to rattle off so many hard punches like that, particularly as a bigger heavyweight. Fast in relation to his size definitely, fast for any heavyweight, yes, still fast. His single shot speed is good too.

crusader wrote:I'd say his destructive offense plays a large part, as it puts opponents in a shell and makes them reluctant to throw back. He's got some skill, no denying that, but I just don't think his speed is anything special and I've tried hard to see the fast hands others talk about.

I think this is the key. When you have the punching power of Joshua, if you're fighting him, you have to be careful not to be too offensive as you could be ruined by a counter. I think you need a great deal of skill to get round this, and it's just not something that Martin possesses.

Riddick Blowe wrote:Joshua is fast, he can fire off a lot of shots in combination very well for a big man and guys can't deal with it. I don't think it's just the power in those combos that causes his opponents problems, it's also the volume he gets in while they're in the corner or against the ropes. If he wasn't fast he simply wouldn't be able to rattle off so many hard punches like that, particularly as a bigger heavyweight. Fast in relation to his size definitely, fast for any heavyweight, yes, still fast. His single shot speed is good too.

Speed isn't a requirement for throwing combinations, especially when your opponent is largely cowering and covering up; that's essentially bag work and pretty much anyone can throw combos on a bag.

In the promo video posted by Freedom (which of course features bright moments of each fighter), which parts do you think show AJ's impressive speed? Do you think he's showing it around 1:30 against Bakhtov? To me the best display was probably against Sprott, but that's him going all out against a living punching bag, and I imagine that in the same situation several HWs could match the speed he showed. I won't go as far as Whyte did and say that he's slow, but he often gets too much credit for his speed IMO.

Joshua by KO (Rounds 1-6) for me.

Funny to read things back after only two months.

There's a little "x" next to Joshua (1-6) rounds, so I must have guessed right.