Is Joshua past prime?

[DrDuke]

Or just Dub was better?

[Syntax Error]

It's a bit of a tough question for me.

Joshua is 34 and 12 years into his career, so he's probably not in his absolute peak, but he's not past-it.

I think Joshua was always susceptible to fast and aggressive punchers and that's Dubois's game.

Joshua was hurt by Whyte and downed by Wladimir, but neither of them are aggressive pressure fighters.

He got smoked Ruiz who is also very fast and put it on him; I am inclined to think it's down to Dubois being better.

[margaret thatcher]

dubois can hit but i wouldnt call him fast. if anything he's a bit lumbering and he looks arm heavy at times to me, but he keeps applying hard hitting pressure and that type of thing can make aj jittery

i dont think josh is in his prime, but he wasnt showing any indication of being a shot figter either prior to meeting dubois. so i would vote yes past prime, but he still looked decent enough lately and big props to dan for bashing him like that

[tonyevs]

Joshua hasn't had a particularly long career like the similarly aged Saul Canelo. But like Canelo he has kept himself in great shape between fights .. and probably benefitted from modern performance enhancing .. supplements.
Therefore Joshua should be very close to his physical prime.

The problem of course is his mental attitude. He looked to me as if he expected an easy nights work with Dubois .. and was really looking forward to putting it on him. Absolutely crazy tactics of standing in front of a big strong guy with his hands down,

It was interesting to see that Boxercise-Ben had between rounds advised Joshua to 'roll the dice' and double the jab and bring up the uppercut ... Shane McGuigan had heard this and instantly stated it was bad advise because it would walk Joshua into a short right hand.

Boom!

Joshua is likely past his best bearing in mind his attitude is probably not what it was. But physically, in his prime.

He needs to ditch Ben Davison for the rematch.

[mickey1975]

Way past his prime.

[MasterG]

Or just Dub was better?

DD was better on the night. Post fight interview he was clearly in shock as he couldn't really give an interview. DD had the perfect game plan, go to AJ and hit him. It worked.

Overall career wise, is DD any better than AJ, I don't think so.

[coneye]

Think its a bit of a lot off things , People thought AJ was a bit better than he was , ( except Micky lol )

People thought DD was a bit worse than he was / is

AJ has definetly slipped a bit ,, how much we don't really know ,

But i think a large part is , he just cannot listen and gel with the right trainer , why oh why he picked this guy has me stuffed , never been a fan of Davidson , he just sprouts bollocks and rubbish , and obviously has watched AJ in the gym practice and perfect BASIC NOVICE MISTAKES ,,, ,,, christ the guy must off sparred lots of rnds under Ben , can you honestly say he just started to throw the right drop the left , throw the left drop the right , on the night , why has he not been picked up ,chastised , told off and told off some more for doing it , where was the muscle memory from constant PERFECT PRACTICE . AND WHO THE FOOK INSTRUCTS SOMEONE TO GO OUT AND LEAD WITH A RIGHT UPERCUT AGAINST AN AGGRESIVE PUNCHER

If your fighting a short , aggressive guy coming forwars , from long range a jab , upercut will work to catch him coming in , but against a strong big hitter , do me a favor its basic boxing

[DrDuke]

Joshua looked good in his recent fights. It's common for him to fall under pressure. The Klit case isn't a proof of Joshua's toughness, Klit simple made a mistake and took a too big pause. Dub was pressing the action enough, like Ruiz had done before. The big strong guy with a punch and a will to come forward is just a nightmare for Joshua, who has always been pretty hittable and fragile.

[cormack]

no doubt

maybe those 2 Usyk camps and back to back fights have been the catalyst .

Also for anyone being such a famous celeb will have an effect - look at Ryan Garcia for example he has lost the plot totally .

[Gran Hermano]

Dubois could be better? Hrgovic and Joshua are great wins on his resume at this age. No shame in Usyk defeat and Joyce was a learning curve - but he was winning that fight until he 'quit'

He has some exciting potential matchups on the horizon - Bakole/Zhang/Kabayel - even Fury.

[dookus]

Joshua looked good in his recent fights. It's common for him to fall under pressure. The Klit case isn't a proof of Joshua's toughness, Klit simple made a mistake and took a too big pause. Dub was pressing the action enough, like Ruiz had done before. The big strong guy with a punch and a will to come forward is just a nightmare for Joshua, who has always been pretty hittable and fragile.

Yeah - a fùcking five-round pause

[hhaehre]

Physically he shouldn't be past it, but I think Ruiz ruined him.

[DrDuke]

Joshua looked good in his recent fights. It's common for him to fall under pressure. The Klit case isn't a proof of Joshua's toughness, Klit simple made a mistake and took a too big pause. Dub was pressing the action enough, like Ruiz had done before. The big strong guy with a punch and a will to come forward is just a nightmare for Joshua, who has always been pretty hittable and fragile.

Yeah - a fùcking five-round pause

It was literally like that. He pushed more even after got down himself and slowed with putting Joshua on the canvas.

[Controversial]

He isn't a natural boxer IMO, he came to the sport late and won a lot of fights on his physical size, strength and power and with the benefit of Team GB behind him and all the benefits that has in terms of training, prep, dieticians etc but technically he's never been outstanding. I just think he was caught cold early and never really recovered and taking nothing away from DDD he's very big, strong, hard hitting and was there to win, not make up the numbers. 32 fights in 10 years isn't as tough as many fighters especially when he hasn't really been in many wars, over half of them ended in under 3 rounds.

[tony1234]

Since 2019 he's been on the downhill side of his career, he will only decline as all sportsmen do once they're on the slide

[Twinkle Toes]

Not sure.

The change in tactics from being an offenisve force to hanging back and 'boxing' has nullified a lot of what he is about imo.

[JamesPhilips]

Not sure.

The change in tactics from being an offenisve force to hanging back and 'boxing' has nullified a lot of what he is about imo.

Great point. Fat Andy ruined his confidence

[gregregegg]

I’m not 100 percent sure he was past prime when he made the ring walk last week. Even in hindsite Mabey that was prime AJ walking in…. (Likely not but Mabey)….

But after that beating he is defiantly now past prime. That was the kind of fight that ages you a few years.