Both guys have show to gas at times in tough fights, and both can be hurt. What gives? Is AJ just too big and strong or does Holyfield come through and outlast the bigger man?
Still too early to tell but if I had to guess I'd pick Joshua. Holy of '91 wasn't a puncher and Joshua is quick enough to catch him a lot
Christ Almighty stop overrating this guy. He just had a pull a fight from the flames from a 200 year old Klit.
Lol indeed. At this point, there is nothing to suggest that AJ could handle a strong skillfull guy like Holy. AJ looked clueless for most of the fight against wlad, and he only got success by bumrushing the big coward. He won,t have success fighting this way against Holy
This 'strong' Holyfield weighed 208 lbs and hardly stopped anyone worth damn at heavyweight. I could see him hurting Joshua in his '96 form but in '91 his game was to beat his opponents to the punch and Joshua's speed and reach make that strategy really difficult. Mind you, this Holyfield lost 3-4 rounds against both Foreman and Holmes, had a grueling fight against old Dokes and was almost KOed by Bert Cooper. That is the reality, not the mental image people have of Holyfield. Unless you are good in making things up
I wouldn't be confident in picking Joshua over the 91 Foreman, I really wouldn't be. I think he's become pretty overrated since the Klit fight, and his "speed" is especially overrated. Joshua has above average speed, but he's not the most fluid guy at all. In fact, he's robotic. Holy has a pretty substantial edge in speed and movement, and hit hard enough to badly hurt Joshua, who doesn't appear to have the sturdiest chin.
Joshua is definitely quicker than Foreman and Holmes, both of whom landed punches on Holyfield. Furthermore, I am not convinced that Joshua is chinny, at least any more so than Moorer who did beat Holy
Joshua beating Holy...or Tyson, or Lewis, or Bowe, is contingent upon a future, polished, improved version of Joshua that doesn't yet exist. Will he develop into a fighter that could potentially beat those four guys? Time will tell. Is he that fighter right now? No. He gets bashed by all of those guys currently. Those guys weren't semi-retired, inactive, 187 year old Wald's. And let's be really frank... those four guys were better than a PRIME Wald, let alone an old, washed up version.
For me, even an improved AJ won't reach the same level as Tyson and Lewis. Potentially, AJ could get better enough to maybe beat the likes of a Holyfield and that's still mainly due to the big size advantage he'd have, plus Vander's tendency to gas in his own right and the sometimes shaky moments he had against the likes of Cooper and Bowe. That said, I don't see forsee any version of AJ that would be capable of beating prime versions of Tyson and Lewis. Those guys are simply put, BETTER FIGHTERS than AJ, and there's no shame in that. Mike is simply too quick, powerful, and unpredictable for AJ. Best case scenario, AJ does as well as an old Holmes did. But that's at best. Lewis gets AJ outta there mid to late. Even the 92 version of Lewis who had that war with Bruno. AJ is simply outgunned in every boxing department against LL.
All legends have been unproven at some point. AJ has done very little wrong so far, apart from being born too late
Btw, I'd pick Lennox over AJ too but let's not forget that LL was knocked out twice by far smaller and far less powerful fighters than Joshua. So let's just stay grounded por favor
