Most impressive first year of a heavyweight

I began to think about this after being impressed by Anthony Joshua and how good he looks after one year of pro boxing. Besides Tyson, I don't know if I have ever seen a heavyweight look this impressive after one pro year. Have you? Who have been the most impressive heavyweights in the history, after one year of boxing?

 

I can't give a very good answer to the question but having just trawled up some vids of Lewis and Wlad at comparable stages i think you're right - Joshua looks at least as good, probably better.

 

Bowe looked better though^^

 

Floyd Patterson became the HW champion in his first year as a HW

 

fft: Roy Jones also looked better after first FIGHT as a hw but that doesn't count

 

Also, both of them fought worse guys. Bakhtov, while certainly nothing special, is a useful Euro scrub and was wiped out

 

Now that think of this more, Frazier fought Bonavena after 13 months and Machen two months later and Foreman beat Chuvalo after his first year. But for a new modern guy Joshua looks good, and IMO much better than Wlad or Lennox

 

Looks good, but not impressive.

 

explain

 

Haymaker's seen it all. Oh ennui, sour fruit of incurious gloom!

 

Well, there's nothing to explain. He looks no better than how Calvin Brock or Michael Grant looked beating mediocre opposition. What do you want me to say? That he looks overly good because he's british? :dunno:

 

He looks much better than calvin brock or Michael Grant.

 

it's good to see Joshua's nice and loose and fluid and not a robot like David Price is.

 

Joshua looks excellent, obvious improvements each time I watch him

 

Joshua has Michael Sprott next. Joshua will dominate and stop Sprott early. I'd like to see Joshua in with the likes of Kevin Johnson next year. Different style of matchup and one where Joshua won't annihilate his opponent early. More of a thought-provoking type of fight.

 

Yeah, no question. He looks patient, accurate, confident, fairly fluid etc. I didn't think much of him at the Olympics, and he got a gift against a Cuban, but he is looking pretty legit now.

One thing though, he doesn't look like a puncher to me. Good power, but not real KO power.

 

Jeremy Williams started off like a rocket, including a wipe out of 10-0 Danell Nicholson.

 

Cosign on all that, jaja.

 

This is true of course and Joshua could still get exposed big time. We haven't seen him fight inside too much for example and only the future will tell if he really is all that. Unlike Williams or Briggs though he looks more like a complete package instead of just steamrolling over his opponents with speed and strength.

 

In this case you don't remember how Grant looked in his first year. This is him after 11 fights which is more than Joshua has had

[video=youtube_share;RUYFaaMQqiY]http://youtu.be/RUYFaaMQqiY[/video]

 

Bit of an odd comment ::

 

You guys still watch heavyweights?

 

Agreed, I wasn't impressed by him at all in the Olympics, and was convinced he would be a bust in the pros, but he's looked really good so far. Especially impressed by his jab; fast, accurate and authorative.

 

teeheehee

 

No. British heavyweights get overhyped quickly. Maybe it's because Lennox Lewis is still fresh on their minds. David Haye, Audley Harrison, etc. All end up being embarrassed after they end their string of low level bums and decide to step it up. :dunno: Audley didn't had to step it up, he straight up lost to bums.

 

I think most people realised fairly quickly that Audley was a bust, Haye I'll give you but he was at least a world class cruiserweight, plus he had the charisma to entice the casual fans. Other than Haye I can't really think of any British heavyweight who garnered ridiculous hype, Tyson Furry just gets recognition for being an unintentionally funny twat who so far has been too stupid to lose, nobody is claiming he is the saviour of the HW division. We're not doing that with Joshua either, just that his progress is encouraging.

 

I don't think that's fair, really. Audley was a superheavyweight Olympic gold medalist. Would his American equivalent have gotten less attention when he first turned pro? It became obvious he didn't have the right stuff pretty quickly and that was that.

Haye got hyped because he was & is extremely exciting in every fight against a non-superheavyweight. Until he fought the giants we didn't know his style would be completely neutralized against them. Again, if he had been an exciting, good looking American cruiserweight who went up and splattered Ruiz & Barret with 4, 5 KDs per fight i think there would have been some hype too.

I don't think there even is an 'etc' - that's the story thus far.

 

You have a point Hut but I don't see anything special in him apart from athleticism, he's been beating up bums, as expected. The HW division is so bad that anyone with a bit of talent and dedication can shine bright for a moment before everything comes crashing down for him.

 

But IMO he hasn't gotten that much of hype (that's why I am producing it). Nobody says he has achieved anything so far, either.

The only point is, he looks really promising for such newcomer. And no matter how bad the heavyweight is, I can't think of an era of boxing where a guy of this size, with that much speed and punch arsenal wouldn't be considered "promising" at least.

Also, can you name a heavyweight that you have seen as 'special' talent? Not to start a fight here, just interested to know. Or is it that you don't consider anyone promising before achieving something more (which is plausible enough)

 

I see some promise beyond gross affletix. He seems to have exceptionally good balance for a big man and excellent measure of distance. He seems composed when the other guy punches back which is always a good sign.

Not saying he's the second coming of Joe Louis or nuffink. And like you say, maybe he's got a glass chin....or maybe he'll eat himself fat in a year. Could go any which way.