If Wil
If Wilder was a paper champ, then AJ isn’t much better.
Pretty much most of his defences were against over the hill fighters like Povetkin and Pulev, or other paper champs like Parker. Then basically C level fighters like Takam, Breazeale etc.
Despite how Eddie Hearn builds it up, AJ’s CV isn’t exactly murderers row when you look at the reality. Some good names but the better ones were way over the hill. The next fight with Usyk is a good one though, real close fight in my opinion. People look at Usyk and Chisora and think Usyk will struggle at heavyweight but AJ isn’t a pressure fighter and swarmer like Chisora. He will give you room to work which might be a real problem against Usyk. Usyk has years of experience with big heavyweights in sparring and also the WSB before he turned pro. So when it comes to the stylistic matchup with AJ, I don’t think size is going to be a huge factor. I think that’s a real fight and massive credit to AJ for taking it and not vacating. I think it’s easily his biggest test since Klitschko, maybe even more so.
Fury has other good wins that get overlooked too, he took Chisora’s 0 and also give him the biggest beating anybody has in the second fight. still the only fight Chisora has never been competitive in. Bearing in mind Chisora is nearly 40 now and still giving younger and good level heavyweights hell, I think retrospectively, they were very good wins, especially handing him his first loss.
Also you can’t say Fury’s win and AJ’s win over Wlad is equal. No fighter gets better at 40 years old with 18 months out of the ring, it doesn’t happen. Fury beat the better and younger version who had dominated the division for 10 years, that’s just fact. If Wlad still had the confidence to finish the job, he would’ve stopped Joshua. Styles make fights anyway, Joshua stylistically was probably a tailor-made appointment for young Klitschko, fairly flat footed who will stand right in front of Klitschko’s jab. So with all his experience, He was always going to be a tough fight for AJ because he made a career fighting a lot of stiff upright fighters like AJ. That’s why he looked good in that fight, despite being older inactive and not the same fighter.