Joshua shouldn't be faulted for fighting undefeated fighters with similar experience

No matter which fighter, or what stage of their career, people get frustrated when a fighter appears to be treading water and fighting opponents who dont carry much threat. I guess the only position in the world thats safe from that is the HW champion who is fighting every available top contender. Joshua might be a prospect, but we havent seen him in a fight where there is any legitimate threat of him losing before the fight.

People want him at 17 fights into his career to fight champions who have had 30+ fights to hone their craft? Seems a bit unfair to me. His last four fights have been undefeated guys who have the same or similar experience as him. He picked up boxing at 18 and is only 26. Why is everybody knocking him for his opponents? His team is doing a great job with him and he seems to get better every fight. I wouldnt pay too much attention to the critics Joshua has the potential to be a great fighter, its best to take their time and let him learn the game and not be rushed for $$$$

People want him at 17 fights into his career to fight champions who have had 30+ fights to hone their craft? Seems a bit unfair to me. His last four fights have been undefeated guys who have the same or similar experience as him. He picked up boxing at 18 and is only 26. Why is everybody knocking him for his opponents? He is being labeled by Hearn, matchroom, skysports and himself as a world champion...in the heavyweight division no less. That's what the casuals are being duped into seeing and you think he should be fighting bums? Ali won THE heavyweight crown at just 22 with only 20 fights under his belt and yet, his next 7 opponents had combined, 300+ wins between them. Should he just have defended against other 20 fight novices who were 22 years old?

He won it from a dude who won a vacant title on a injury...come on Anthony Joshua doesn't duck anyone unlike the guy on your avatar.

Joshua is beating good level of opposition and he is well on board to earning fighter of the year he needs to cap this great year off with another great win I would rather it be someone like a Wilder, Haye or Fury but I think Fury with his play acting and his rematch with Wladimir that it's likely Fury will only fight once this year.

I think Joseph Parker is a good next fight for him. They are building him up on PPV/box Office, which could backfire if he takes a loss now. Granted he is much better than David Price but that should serve as a painful reminder of what could go wrong. He was pretty much gifted a belt and he is expected to be in tougher tests which I think he will take. If he fights Wilder after Parker I'll give him credit - win or lose. Eddie Hearn can't keep putting out average to poor PPV shows against limited opposition. Why not go for someone like Povetkin after Parker? That would be a good scalp... He's already 10 times better + 1000 times more popular than David Price ever was.

He won it from a dude who won a vacant title on a injury...come on Is that AJs fault?

If people want to go down that road, fine, but they had better not say a damned thing about Wilder, who actually tried to take on a top fighter. Bashing one and not the other is hypocrisy. Personally, I wish these guys wouldn't go after world titles until they are ready to defend them against world class contenders consistently. You'd think boxing would be organized enough that once you hold a belt, you fight only the best guys. Somehow, the practice has become that you get a belt, you fight two losers right off the bat, and hold that belt for at least 2 years before taking any risks. Wilder has double the amount of fights AJ has and is still consistently fighting poorer opposition. no hypocrisy there.

I think Joseph Parker is a good next fight for him. They are building him up on PPV/box Office, which could backfire if he takes a loss now. Granted he is much better than David Price but that should serve as a painful reminder of what could go wrong. He was pretty much gifted a belt and he is expected to be in tougher tests which I think he will take. If he fights Wilder after Parker I'll give him credit - win or lose. Eddie Hearn can't keep putting out average to poor PPV shows against limited opposition. Why not go for someone like Povetkin after Parker? That would be a good scalp...

He won it from a dude who won a vacant title on a injury...come on He's being marketed (and is marketing himself) as a world champion. That means he should act like one. Fu*k this shit of fans making excuses for what is blatant fraud.

If you win a belt (at any age), people dont expect you to fight someone of Breazele's caliber especially when won it from someone of Charles Martin's pedigree.

While I agree, holding a world title makes it hard to argue against people wanting to see better comp.

I agree, but if your holding a world title then no excuses,,... If Joshua had no title, no one would care and still think of him as a green prospect.. Once you get a world title, then all bets are off, and you gotta face top guys

He's holding a world title. He won it from a dude who won a vacant title on a injury...come on

I agree.......

If people want to go down that road, fine, but they had better not say a damned thing about Wilder, who actually tried to take on a top fighter. Bashing one and not the other is hypocrisy. Personally, I wish these guys wouldn't go after world titles until they are ready to defend them against world class contenders consistently. You'd think boxing would be organized enough that once you hold a belt, you fight only the best guys. Somehow, the practice has become that you get a belt, you fight two losers right off the bat, and hold that belt for at least 2 years before taking any risks.

I have no problem with him, i just don't really consider him a proper world champion. I see him as a fighter who's still developing on his way up that got an opportunity to get a belt, which makes the "world champion" status a great marketing tool that appeals to his huge casual fanbase who don't know any better and the belt is a good bargaining chip when he's ready to make big fights. It's absolutely insane that he sells huge PPV numbers and big arena's when you look at the reality of his level of opposition. They've done a hell of a job marketing him, but good luck to them. If they can make that money, then they should make as much as they can even at this stage. This is boxing, your career can nosedive at any moment, it just takes one punch.

I'm not knocking him. His opposition is far better overall than Wilder's especially when Wilder was at the same number of fights. If you go by boxrec Wilder has only fought one guy rated in the top 10 and that was when he won his world title. All of the guys Wilder defended his title against were ranked lower than the guy Joshua KOed yesterday. Being fair to Wilder he was ready to fight the high ranked Russian and it's not his fault the Russian tested positive for peds. Joshua is fighting Parker, a top 10 world rated heavyweight next. Parker is ranked much higher than Wilder's next opponent. After Wilder and Joshua both KO their next opponents they will fight each other in the USA. Then we will see which one of these two exciting KO artists is the best. My money is on Joshua to win that fight. Have you seen the list of Parkers opponents? They mostly look like security guards boxing on their days off. His boxing style is hilarious, random wild punches. The Joshua camp are being clever with their choice of opponents to help build his fanbase and take advantage of him being young and exciting, as they know if Joshua is put in the ring with certain fighters, he will be exposed.

I'm not knocking him. His opposition is far better overall than Wilder's especially when Wilder was at the same number of fights. If you go by boxrec Wilder has only fought one guy rated in the top 10 and that was when he won his world title. All of the guys Wilder defended his title against were ranked lower than the guy Joshua KOed yesterday. Being fair to Wilder he was ready to fight the high ranked Russian and it's not his fault the Russian tested positive for peds. Joshua is fighting Parker, a top 10 world rated heavyweight next. Parker is ranked much higher than Wilder's next opponent. After Wilder and Joshua both KO their next opponents they will fight each other in the USA. Then we will see which one of these two exciting KO artists is the best. My money is on Joshua to win that fight.

Well I don't actually think people are that hard on him. There would always be a few but from what I could see it isn't that bad, he is still a prospect so am not letting that fake belt move me away from that. But one thing am going to say is NOT everyone needs 30 odd fights like Wilder before they step up, AJ might need a few more fights but not another 13 before he fights the likes of Haye or Fury.