Anthony Joshua vs Daniel Dubois

DuBois finisher last night was an awkward pushed punch that is now being put in the same category as some Joe Louis shit.

Yeah he's faced guys at the right time.

 

Now is the perfect time to make AJ vs Wilder. Now or never. Saudis should throw some money on that

 

Ya that punched looked like a push and he was flopping like a fish

 

Fury, Zhang, Hrgovicz, Wilder... Instead of Wallin, Helenius and the MMA bloke, for starters?

MTF

 

Joshua didn't see it. He was halfway through the loopiest, shoddiest uppercut and he didn't see that short right coming. That's exactly the type of shot which lays you out.

MTF

 

I'm claiming that one. Sometime after the Usyk fight, I think.

MTF

 

Remember guys, this is the same AJ would have stopped Joe Frazier inside of 2...

I said years ago, Bruno would have smoked AJ, let alone Frazier.

 

Joshua is clueless once he's been caught on the chin. He doesn't protect himself or look to tie up his opponent. He ends up all over the place. It is amazing too how much he leaves his chin exposed.

 

AJ's chin was never good, but when he fought Wald he was a young man at the peak of his physical powers.

Harder to recover from those shots when you're in your 30s.

Plus, even though I hate Wald, even I'll admit that a young Wald would have destroyed AJ.

 

Wilder?

 

He's often had a tendency to get buzzed while hunting for a KO [see Ruiz 1 or vs Whyte]

 

He's also not very good at clinching.

Usyk and Ruiz [first fight] had few issues rendering his clinches ineffective.

 

Good ol' Sly. He's a miss round these parts

MTF

 

His defence has always been shite. The biggest (in-ring) criticism I've always had of him is that he's learned absolutely nothing, defensively.

He's one of that past crop of very successful British ammys who had Rob McKracken and his mates training them to win ammy fights under the old rules. They made box-bots; quick-handed, upright stiffs who come in and out in straight lines, looking to 'score' with fast 1-2s before moving back out and doing it again.

It worked great... for amateurs. But it's useless against top level pros, because the better ones simply time you on the way back out. He's got absolutely no clue how to move backwards. He just shuffles out the way he came, which leaves him in the perfect position to be smashed. Add in his ridiculous tendency to keep his hands low, his chin high and his reckless disregard when he thinks he's 'winning' (which you alluded to earlier), and you've got what you get.

He's never worked to improve any of this. He got drilled last night in almost the exact same manner that the fat Mexican drilled him.

MTF

 

Looked to me like he was tying up dubious plenty

Then the ref would scold dubious for attempting to get free

 

I love how AJ had that false bravado in display heading in those last couple rounds. Tongue out, smiling, playing around. Then he ‘goes for it’ lands a couple descent shots, ready to turn the fight in his favor, crowd getting all excited as he’s having his Rocky moment… and gets fucking splattered by a medium hard shot that sticks to his exposed chin for an awkwardly long time. Seeing Hearn looking all depressed was awesome

 

Picked AJ to win but wow, he got absolutely destroyed in there. Never saw that happening. Fair play to Dubois, he fought a great fight, jab was on point from the opening seconds and came to do damage. I don't think Joshua can come back from that, it was a career-ender.

One big positive from this is that we probably won't have to hear that whiny prat Adam Smith screaming "lift off for AJ!" in his stupid, puny voice on promo material ever again.

 

AJ might be the first/only modern athlete whose conception/deception/implosion I've lived through from the very beginning to the very very end.

Right from the 2012 Olympics to last night and everything in between..

 

Same here. Never tought AJ was bad enough to lose to Dubious, and even less that badly. And yes, his career is absolutely over.

 

Really????

I can think of a ton (Khan comes to mind immediatelty)

 

Well, he beat Parker who has a win over Zhang and Dubois of course just beat Hrgovicz.

 

Oh no Khan fought through the deception. He ended his career roided off his nuts taking a beating a lot of people expected he might take

AJ was trying to carry on with the deception as recently as last night.

Khan fighting Canelo sort of shits all over Joshua in a way. It's the Grand Canyon death leap of boxing

 

He beat Parker when he was at the absolute peak of his mental state. He'd probably lose to Parker tomorrow.

 

Parker fought scared, agree if they went now

 

I hate AJ as much as anyone, and was a a mild Khan fan, but youre being overdramatic here. AJ career is probably better overall tha Khan one

 

Have to disagree. Khan had a bunch of obvious, and disastrous, limitations, but despite those he had a good career. His wins over Maidana, Alexander and Paulie are better than any combination of wins AJ can put together. Khan was a chinless boxbot but he made a hell of a career in spite of that.

MTF

 

Are these wins really better than Wald pussy, Parker, Povetkin and Ruiz?

If they are, its barely.

 

It's difficult for non-UK fight fans to appreciate the link, but Khan was the hyped 'house fighter' before AJ was. He got the big Olympic hype, then the scandalous Kindelan 'rematch' (i.e. fix), then a diet of mooks, some of whom caused him bother (Limond, Earl) before the inevitable hubris against Prescott. Most hardcore UK fans enjoyed that, just as we enjoyed AJ v Ruiz. Khan was/is a superstar here, and he was before he did much to deserve it. AJ walked the same path.

The difference is that Khan, for all his hilarious lack of punch resistance, got back in and strung together some elite level wins. He was expected to get splattered by Maidana (I wrote a piece for this site stating as such) and he nearly did, but he came through and kept on testing himself. AJ has done nothing of the sort. He's feasted on underpowered shorties, has-beens and never-weres while making squillions and being a household name. Even this fight was supposed to be a gimme. He was the A-side, giving it the big lad in promos, coming in with a ridiculous walk-on and all the talk about his next fight v Fury.

It's always been fluff. It's great to see it collapse around him.

MTF

 

Yeah, I think so, and by a fair bit. The Maidana win stands out a mile tbh. Khan was a heavy underdog going in and somehow gutted it out.

Wald was really, really old when AJ fought him. Parker is slow, short and featherfisted. Povetkin is a short, career roider not far away from being stopped by daft Dillon when AJ got to him.. And Ruiz brayed the fuck out of Joshua, before AJ ran and jabbed for his life to 'avenge' it.

Honestly, imo it isn't even close.

MTF

 

Agreed (except that I think Khan was actually the favorite vs Maidana IIRC). Maidan, Judah and Malignaggi, while no murderers row, are far better wins than anything AJ did. Furthermore he really tried to fight/fought the best while AJ never fought the 2 main guys of his era (Wilder and Fury, Usyk wasn't considered that much of a threat at hw before he beat him).