He turned professional in 2008 so it's not like he didn't have time to fight him. He won his title in his 33rd fight, and the decided to defend it against absolute nobody's.
You'll have to elaborate.
People are overlooking Usyk’s experience relative Joshua’s. When Joshua started boxing, Usyk was already at an Olympic Games.
The guy who beat him is a phenomenal boxer, though. And yes, the UK has been pretty shite at HW boxing for 100 years before lewis.
Much younger? It was a year and a half. And by all accounts VK was in great shape when he fought AJ.
Lennox Lewis literally had one of the best jabs in the history of HW boxing. There is no time in Joshua's career where he will ever come close to that level of perfection and it's impossible for him to think and fight in the manner Lewis did because of the gulf in the quality of the jab.
Whos been the best HW in the world before tonight?
Wilder is a bum with a bomb, nothing more. Joshua has fought pretty much every good heavy weight out there. You're living in la la land
This is it. We can call AJ a lot of things, but he's always game. He'll fight anyone. There existed this pretense that AJ ducked Fury and Wilder, but we've heard from both camps who have acknowledged offers were made from AJ. As the champ, wtf was he having to chase contenders, and why were they turning down the biggest paydays of their career?!
"Oh what's that? You pull a bigger crowd, you have more belts, are considered a better fighter, and have a far better record? Well why don't you come fight me in this bingo hall with a 6k capacity I can't sell out? Oh whats that? I could fight in front of 60k fans and earn more than I've ever earned in my entire career? No thanks, I'll fight this other Brit, who at the time had no belts and a quarter of the following."
I would have said Joshua over fury. I rated his resume higher.
OK, who hits harder than Joshua at HW, then? I've got wilder and I'm out.
And 10+ years as an amateur, to boot. Being outboxed by Usyk is destiny for all but a handful of opponents he'll face and it's no great shame or embarrassment. He's been a P4P top 5-10 for years, so obviously, if he can take his game up or down a division with no fallout, those P4P qualities will come to the fore, which is what happened tonight. I don't see how it's a travesty or disgrace on Joshua's part.
No. Let's not side step. His 'better record,' let's have some names. Let's make this comparison. The most ardent Fury fans wouldn't even make this debate.
Wilder is a bum with a bomb, nothing more. Joshua has fought pretty much every good heavy weight out there. You're living in la la land
Fury had no belts, despite his disingenuous claims he was the linear champ. He either fought Joshua, who approached HIM, or he fights Harry Haymaker. He chose the latter. What possible reason do we have for Fury not accepting the fight at the time, which would've been his bigger ever purse, despite it (rightly) being weighted towards the guy with all the power? Fury likes to claim he doesn't fight for money, so why didn't he take the fight?
I think you need to re-watch the bout. Usyk's face was marked up by consecutive hits, not a few clobbering shots. Usyk won the starting and ending rounds, but the middle rounds had a lot of exchanges that were not in Usyk's favour.
To be fair he was the lineal champ, and hold the Ring title. It is widely considered to be better than having any of the alphabetic titles.
Because he had to. Fury was negotiating from a position of weakness in that fight, AJ a position of strength. It shouldn't be held against AJ that he didn't do that when he never should have to do that.
That's subjective. Personally, I think the Wlad AJ faced was far better. For the first time in forever he had trimmed down, actually seemed to have a strategy for his opponent, and had the hunger. He didn't respect Fury, and thought he was fighting just anther no mark challenger.
To be clear, you'd say the first Wilder fight Fury took is tougher than any fight AJ has taken?
When you're banned and Rings own rules regarding inactivity strips you of the belt, you aren't linear champ. If we ignore that, then I suppose Rocky Marciano is still linear champ!
He didn't choose the bigger purse? Thats the point! The same nonsense was said regarding Wilder, until Wilder finally admitted last year he took LESS money to fight. Fury held no belts to AJs 3 at the time. But it's still maintained AJ ducked Wilder, just as it is that AJ ducked Fury.
That will pay off only if he catches him within the first half of the fight, else he will gas out.
Bingo 100%.
