F--- boxing

Good riddance!

 

Heavyweight championship fight in London last night.

No takers?

 

Not a single person cares about the heavyweight championship of the world.

Boxing, the constant invalid.

 

I watched it online about three hours ago. Pretty fun fight, athletic guys, no clinching, good punches...but not a fight that had any business happening. Joshua claimed he wanted the Wilder fight and then allowed his promoter to do everything to stall it. I think he would have a tough time with Fury or Wilder if those fights ever happen.

 

I think Povetkin was a mandatory WBA defense.

Joshua is slow to rouse. He didn't have real trouble with Povetkin, but still managed to lose the first four rounds. As he often does. He relies on his power, but he's not really throwing hard until the fifth round. And he carries his left so low that he can be hit hard in the meantime.

That won't work against bigger, younger, better fighters. Povetkin gave him half a hard fight and Povetkin is 39 years old. Shouldn't have been that close.

Fury is a wild card. Who knows which Fury shows up? The lover? The fighter? The fatty? The madman? The boxer? The puncher?

Joshua beats Fury, I think, no matter which version shows up.

That said, eventually Joshua fights Wilder. Wilder is no boxer, but he's a very hard swinger and can take a punch.

Joshua vs Wilder is an even-money fight, with a slight edge to Joshua, the better boxer.

 

If the in-shape, in-mind Fury shows up I don't think Joshua will have much success. He's bigger, he's crafty, he knows how to use his size to make his opponent ineffective. He's just a tough guy to figure out because of his movement.

Joshua-Wilder is definitely even money and would be far more entertaining.

 

I'm not sure the height discrepancy will make enough of a difference. It didn't for Mike Tyson all those years. He just punched through the height differential.

Which I think Joshua can do if Fury tries to drape himself over his shoulders.

And don't forget, the Klitschko Fury beat was 39 years old. Running on fumes. Fury has never fought anyone as good as Joshua in his prime.

Let's see if Fury can get past Wilder first.

 

The Klitschko that Joshua beat was almost 41 years old and damn near knocked his ass out. Joshua hasn't beaten anyone good in their prime yet unless you consider Dillian Whyte a big deal. I really don't know how good Joshua is. Povetkin wasn't a good barometer, by his own admission he didn't have six good rounds in him.

I don't know that Fury can beat Wilder. I think Wilder is a tougher fight for Fury than Joshua because he's more than willing to wait for the big punch to land and he isn't trying to win on scorecards. He showed that with Luis Ortiz, who outboxed him and hit him with a lot of hard shots. Joshua isn't a good enough fighter to fight a tactical fight with a guy like Fury. He was confused at times with Joseph Parker, who isn't much a puncher at all.

 

Completely agree that Joshua has never been tested.

As remarkable as some of the other divisions have been the last few years - welterweight, for example, middleweight, etc. - the heavyweights have been lackluster and/or erratic.

 

I'm hopeful that it's starting to change a little. Right now there are three upper-echelon heavyweights that are undefeated. Fury and Wilder will fight in December and Joshua has Wembley book for April 13 (I think) so hopefully he will be eager to fight the winner of the first fight.

What the heavyweights are missing is a really good second level of guys that can make good fights. Luis Oritz is a good one. Bryant Jennings is all right but he loss his only two fights that were a step up in competition and he's not much of a puncher.

Looking on the BoxRec Heavyweight rankings there are some guys there that have nice records but I've never heard of them and it seems to take an act of Congress for these guys to want to fight each other.

 

Has Wilder been tested? I agree that Joshua wins that fight, one that I’ll be looking forward to because I like both guys.

Other than he’s a loon, I don’t know much about Fury.

 

I think Ortiz was Wilder's first real test.

But Ortiz is a thousand years old, so the test didn't last long.

Still, Wilder proved he can take some punishment and recover. Cannot box a lick, however.

And I recommend the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board over the algorithm at BoxRec.

RANKINGS | Transnational Boxing Rankings Board


I'll add here that BoxRec is indispensable in a million ways, but the rankings are a little screwy.