Aj v Ngannou

Marvanelli said:
Because this thread is about AJ, not Fury.

Did it upset you I laughed at the level of AJ's recent opponents?

Looks like someone needs some thicker skin.
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Joshua's opponents make sense though. Laughing at them just makes you look a bit clueless. He was beaten convincingly by Usyk twice. He's gone away, switched trainers, made some tweaks to his style and can see his confidence grow to a point where he's ready to take big fights again now. It's tried and tested in boxing and Joshua isn't the first world champion to do it and won't be the last.

Look at Parker for example. He's done it twice and now he looks to have come back to be better than he ever has done. He was a World Champion 2016-2018. He was beaten convincingly by Joshua and Whyte. He went away started again. Beat some low level fighters. Worked his way back up to beat Chisora but was then beaten by Joyce. He went away again beat 3 nobodies. and has now come back and beaten Wilder and Zhang and looks the best he ever has.

Have a look at Lennox Lewis's record and what he did after being beaten by McCall.

Or Tyson after he was beaten by Douglas

Or go back further and look at Ali and Frazier and how they dealt with defeats. AJ is doing nothing different.

The difference with Fury is he isn't coming off a loss, he's a world champion. If you can't see the difference then I don't think it's even worth having the discussion.

Joshua's not going to take anything risky now until Fury fights Usyk and they see what happens with the belts. Hearn has been very clear that he sees a pathway for AJ to get become a 3 time world champion. He's got himself into a position where he should get a World Title shot either back end of this year or early next year.
 
ForssAwakens said:
Aj vs Ngannou doesn’t make sense at all
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Why? It was a high paying keep busy fight while he waits for another crack at a title. Rightly or wrongly, it was the biggest payday out there for him.
Ngannou probably looked a bit tougher than what he was after Fury made such a meal of it. It hasn't told us anything other than Joshua has immense power and looks like he's got the confidence to implement it now. More so than he did 12 months ago.

The Wilder fight fell through after Wilder was beaten. Who else would you have wanted him to fight and why would it have made more sense to Joshua?
Bear in mind he's already in pole position to fight for the soon to be vacant IBF World Title or the winner of Usyk/Fury if no rematch happens.
 
B_G said:
Why? It was a high paying keep busy fight while he waits for another crack at a title. Rightly or wrongly, it was the biggest payday out there for him.
Ngannou probably looked a bit tougher than what he was after Fury made such a meal of it. It hasn't told us anything other than Joshua has immense power and looks like he's got the confidence to implement it now. More so than he did 12 months ago.

The Wilder fight fell through after Wilder was beaten. Who else would you have wanted him to fight and why would it have made more sense to Joshua?
Bear in mind he's already in pole position to fight for the soon to be vacant IBF World Title or the winner of Usyk/Fury if no rematch happens.
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Why? Because crossover fights are a joke and someone is clearly going to get killed sooner or later. The final knockdown was ugly.

It does nothing for aj and keeping himself tuned to better fighters. He probably faced stiffer tests in first 10 fights
 
ForssAwakens said:
Why? Because crossover fights are a joke and someone is clearly going to get killed sooner or later. The final knockdown was ugly.

It does nothing for aj and keeping himself tuned to better fighters. He probably faced stiffer tests in first 10 fights
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He's fought 4 times in the last 12 months and got plenty of competitive rounds in. He's not looking for tough fights. In fact, he actively wants to avoid tough fights. The last thing he wants now is an injury that sets him back or a loss. He doesn't want to be taking heavy shots that are potentially going to affect his chances of performing when it matters.

I agree, crossover fights are a joke, I don't agree with them but right now they exist and pay huge money. That is the reality. Maybe interest in them will now dwindle after AJ showed them up for exactly what they are. Had Fury, his daft brother or even Mayweather got in the ring and done what they should have done then the AJ Ngannou fight would never have happened.

If someone is going to give AJ £40m for an easy nights work, do you think he's going to turn it down? If he was taking it instead of a shot at a world title, then I would question his sporting integrity. But fighting a Zhang, Parker or Sanchez right now does nothing for him. He's fought plenty of fights at that level. It doesn't improve his chances of getting a title shot. It would have paid less money. He'd have taken a lot more risk of potentially suffering a loss or taking damage.
 
B_G said:
Joshua's opponents make sense though. Laughing at them just makes you look a bit clueless. He was beaten convincingly by Usyk twice. He's gone away, switched trainers, made some tweaks to his style and can see his confidence grow to a point where he's ready to take big fights again now. It's tried and tested in boxing and Joshua isn't the first world champion to do it and won't be the last.

Look at Parker for example. He's done it twice and now he looks to have come back to be better than he ever has done. He was a World Champion 2016-2018. He was beaten convincingly by Joshua and Whyte. He went away started again. Beat some low level fighters. Worked his way back up to beat Chisora but was then beaten by Joyce. He went away again beat 3 nobodies. and has now come back and beaten Wilder and Zhang and looks the best he ever has.

Have a look at Lennox Lewis's record and what he did after being beaten by McCall.

Or Tyson after he was beaten by Douglas

Or go back further and look at Ali and Frazier and how they dealt with defeats. AJ is doing nothing different.

The difference with Fury is he isn't coming off a loss, he's a world champion. If you can't see the difference then I don't think it's even worth having the discussion.

Joshua's not going to take anything risky now until Fury fights Usyk and they see what happens with the belts. Hearn has been very clear that he sees a pathway for AJ to get become a 3 time world champion. He's got himself into a position where he should get a World Title shot either back end of this year or early next year.
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I'm not saying they don't make sense, nor am I saying it's the wrong path.

I said the weightage being put on AJ's opponents is far too much as they are powderpuff fights.

He was absolutely schooled by Usyk and was proved on more than one occasion how limited he is as a heavyweight boxer. The most recent fights have showed us nothing new.

Yes he may have gained some confidence from those fights, but until he gets in the ring with someone decent - Fury for example, then those recent fights mean very little.

I doubt Fury v AJ even happens, so we'll likely never know.

And it's pointless him fighting Usyk again, as Usyk will just box his head off again.
 
Marvanelli said:
I'm not saying they don't make sense, nor am I saying it's the wrong path.

I said the weightage being put on AJ's opponents is far too much as they are powderpuff fights.

He was absolutely schooled by Usyk and was proved on more than one occasion how limited he is as a heavyweight boxer. The most recent fights have showed us nothing new.

Yes he may have gained some confidence from those fights, but until he gets in the ring with someone decent - Fury for example, then those recent fights mean very little.

I doubt Fury v AJ even happens, so we'll likely never know.

And it's pointless him fighting Usyk again, as Usyk will just box his head off again.
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Agree it's pointless him fighting Usyk again. That fight went exactly the way I predicted at the time. Usyk is totally wrong for him. He will have a much better chance against Fury if it ever happens. It won't happen if Usyk beats Fury.
AJ's opponents are what they are. They obviously don't prove that he's the best in the world, but you can take things from them. You can see the difference in stance, you can see the weight of his shots, you can see the better head movement. Is that enough for him to go and beat Usyk. I very much doubt it but he certainly looks a better version of himself than we have ever seen and it's very possible that there's no one else out there who could beat him right now.

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Fury does not possess the same skill level as Usyk. AJ will land on Fury over 12 rounds.
And by the way, my prediction of the Fury v Usyk fight has changed based on what we've seen over the last 2 years. I can't back Fury based on what we've seen over the last 2 years although he will have to win by a wide margin to get a decision against Fury in Saudi. He only beat AJ by split decision in the second fight despite totally dominating!
 
B_G said:
Why? It was a high paying keep busy fight while he waits for another crack at a title. Rightly or wrongly, it was the biggest payday out there for him.
Ngannou probably looked a bit tougher than what he was after Fury made such a meal of it. It hasn't told us anything other than Joshua has immense power and looks like he's got the confidence to implement it now. More so than he did 12 months ago.
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agreed, it appeared to be a medium risk keep busy fight, it turned into a cake walk.

It doesn't tell us anything about Joshua's credentials, only about his attitude right now, which is to throw his punches again. We learned more about Fury from the AJ-Ngannou fight than we did about AJ. We learned that somethings not right with Fury, or he's over rated, because he struggled with a man that AJ made look like a chump.

You can't blame AJ, he wouldn't have taken the fight if it wasn't for the way Fury struggled. In the end, it was easy money. The IBF decision on the belt will probably dictate what happens next. Whoever wins from Usyk-Fury may need to vacate the belt, in which case I think Joshua wins it, possibly by beating Parker. After that he probably wants Fury and then Usyk three, then retire. I think Wilder's ***ed him off too much to give him a pay day
 
BoroMart said:
The IBF decision on the belt will probably dictate what happens next. Whoever wins from Usyk-Fury may need to vacate the belt, in which case I think Joshua wins it, possibly by beating Parker. After that he probably wants Fury and then Usyk three, then retire. I think Wilder's ***ed him off too much to give him a pay day
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It will be Hrgovic he needs to fight. He's already been declared the mandatory.
Either the winner of Usyk v Fury fights Hrgovic this year or they need to vacate in which case Joshua could fight Hrgovic for it. Hearn has strongly hinted at this for a long time now and that is clearly the plan.

Matchroom represent Hrgovic as well so should be easy to make. Leg work is probably already done.
 
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