PBC commentary is even more removed from reality than Golden Boy on ESPN. Pure advertising garbage. Then again, a lot of people here thought the Harrison fight was a robbery, when what I saw was Charlo taking rounds off and looking baffled against a slick defensive fighter. So maybe the PBC commentators are just stupid.
Joshua is in the same position as any other potential Wilder opponent: if he can avoid the right, he probably wins; if he can't avoid the right, he probably loses. The factors are Joshua's power and Wilder's chin. If Wilder's chin is very good - if 2018 Ortiz's power was legit - I don't think Joshua's power is putting him down with one punch or one combination. He'd have to put a sustained hurt on him and wear him down a bit first. If Wilder's chin is still an unknown quantity - if 2018 Ortiz was faded or his power was overrated - anything's possible.
Not a Wilder fan or anti-fan, but I'm inclined to say that Wilder probably has a good chin. So for me, the fight would come down the standard Wilder question: does the opponent have enough boxing ability to avoid the right for a prolonged period of time, and does he have enough power to hurt Wilder while doing so? On my card, Fury - the class of slickness at HW, even not at 100% - pulled it off. What Joshua lacks in slickess compare to Fury, could he make up with power and 'solve the equation'? I hope we find out at some point.
The only wildcard for me is Joshua's nerves. I do think he gets discombobulated when he's in trouble. While he absolutely fought the right fight against Ruiz this time - he didn't put himself in a position where he could get in trouble, and Ruiz couldn't put him there - to beat Wilder he'd have to put himself in danger at some point.
Unless it's an ego thing - unless Joshua really wants to unify or silence pro-Wilder critics - there is no reason for Joshua to fight Wilder. His legions of fans aren't going to abandon him if he doesn't fight Wilder. He's still going to make tons of money even if he doesn't fight Wilder. But if for some reason he does want to fight him, he should follow the blueprint of past superfights when one of the fighters is an elite puncher: wait until that guy gets old and THEN fight him.
Joshua fought this way because he had a reach advantage and was afraid of Ruiz's power. He wouldn't have that advantage against Fury, and Fury has no real power - or at least he fights in a style that deemphasizes whatever power he might have. Fury's weakness, aside from the fact that he isn't going to hurt you, is that he will go down if you hit him on the button (even if he'll get up afterwards). I doubt this fight would ever happen, but Joshua would probably fight in his usual midrange power style.
I thought the weight gain was stupid in the second fight, and thought it was stupid here too. He's a lean guy and any extra weight seems to wear him down. Did his team think he needed extra muscle for a heavier Fury? Did his punches at ~215 not have enough force behind them at 35, so he bulked up? I think speed rather than power would have been the key - faster you are, better chance you have of getting past Fury's defense - but who knows, maybe he's just slow now.
Usyk showed nothing against Witherspoon to suggest he should be fighting for a heavyweight championship. But I assume the only alternatives for Joshua are dropping the belt and scheduling a unification bout with Wilder that would take precedence - the latter would be great, but I don't see it happening in 2020.
Martin was out on his feet, but at the same time that was a hell of a lot of intentional punches to the back of the head from Ortiz.
Yeah, rabbit punches prior to both the knockdown and the stoppage. Martin was probably done either way, but refs let that go way too much.
Super bantam fight was good
The ref missing the headbutt and ruling a knockdown, leading to the 3-point swing in the round and Tapales given no time to recover, tainted the entire rest of the fight.
Joshua's gameplan - a defensive war of maneuver against a smaller, slicker fighter - was inexplicable, except if (a) his people expected that, as long as he didn't get beat up too badly, he'd be gifted the decision or (b) he was damaged psychologically by the Ruiz KO and can't handle getting hit in the head. Think it's probably a combination of the two. (Usyk didn't seem to have a lot of mustard on his punches, but Joshua got discombobulated every time he got hit upstairs.)
If his head is on straight, he could win a rematch by being a size bully: basically reverse the way he handled the two Ruiz fights. But if he's gun-shy now he should probably just retire and enjoy his wealth and fame.