Comments Thread For: Anthony Joshua Admits His Career Doesn't Have Enough Time Left To Reach Undisputed Goal

[pollywog]

If Fury beats Usyk I reckon he'll literally make a big song and dance of throwing all the belts in the bin and retire from boxing, disgracefully, to become a pro wrestler and face Ngannou again.

[Bob]

Translation "after buying my paper belts i ducked Wilder in 18 to milk casuals fighting shot old men & cans because i prefer money over legacy".

Kidding aside 00 He should aim for Hrgovic for the possibility of the ibf & hopefully fight for the other 3 belts next Rhiyahd against the Fury or Usyk winner if they don't retire.

Or in another year get the Saudis & Eddie to buy all the paper belts again.... Only this time dont duck.

[landotter]

This is definitely the case, he tried to be the best of his generation but ultimately failed. He’s certainly a fighter with a lot of integrity and willingness to test himself. It’s clear a lot of people on here don’t like Joshua and hope he fails, so you highlighting the reality of his career so far will be ignored.

I was going to post something very similar to this. For the most part, AJ has a decent resume for this era. The lack of Wilder and Fury is glaring, but he has had a pretty solid run. Even in his loss to Ruiz, revisionist history forgets AJ picked a serious threat who had already fought for a world title as a last minute replacement when no one would have blamed him for picking a scrub instead when drugged up Miller popped all kinds of positive. The fact he went with Ruiz who was ranked instead gets brushed aside. Except for his mental collapse in the aftermath of the second Usyk loss, I do not think Joshua has done anything but been a class act that has tried to be a good champion.

Joshua certainly pissed away the chance for undisputed when he and Wilder were posing instead of fighting (not buying it was not both camps fault). But I think Joshua's resume is better than Wilder's, and holds up well next to Fury. So at least there is that.

[theface07]

5-6 years to do what Tyson did in 1?

AJ is such a *****. I don't know how this fool gets fans.

Mike Tyson did from 86-87 but I don't know how you can compare Mike Tyson in his prime to AJ. Nobody was as good as Mike was in his prime. He was a total anomaly/freak of nature. Tyson Fury never won all 4 major titles to become undisputed in 1 year. He won 3 of the 4 against Klitschko in 2015 and won the WBC belt against Wilder in 2020.

[theface07]

Yea like when he was unwilling to fight Wilder and made demands/excuses instead. All he talked about was Wilder after Franklin, then stopped mentioning his name altogether.

That's probably because Wilder's team have never shown any willingness to want to make that fight. From an unbias non-American, non-British perspective, it has always looked like Wilder has been the one looking for the easiest option possible, which is why it took him so long to fight a top fighter. He only took the initial fight with Fury because Fury was out of shape, coming off drug and alcohol abuse and mental illness and fought a couple of blown up low level cruiserweights. After Wilder got a draw in the first fight, he had to rematch Fury and really showed how limited he was against a motivated and in shape Fury.
It's worth noting that this is coming from someone who isn't a big fan of Tyson Fury but is drawing conclusions through an objective lens.

[Wacked_Out]

Well, Ortiz waited till he was in his late 50's. Zhang too, unless you count the 1000 years he was trapped in that bottle.

[Ragga1]

Whether he's good enough or ever was good enough can be debated.

But I don't think the rest is fair about Joshua.

He became a champion in 2016. And fought 3 times that year.

The next year he fought Klitschko to become a two belt champion and fought a mandatory in Takam.

In 2018 he unified against Parker and fought a mandatory in Povetkin.

He then fought twice in 2019 - once on his US debut and the second the rematch after he lost.

He was one of the few to actually fight in 2020. A COVID no crowd affair against his mandatory in Pulev.

Then the next year faced another mandatory in Usyk.

Since losing the belt to Usyk he's rematched, and then tried to rebuild with 3 fights in under 9 months. With the third fight being against the guy ranked one place below him on TBRB (3rd v 4th). A fight that will put him in line again for the IBF title.

I'm not sure what he could do to earn your respect for his desire to become Undisputed. He did literally everything you could possible expect him to do.

He fought the guys who had belts. He fought the guys he needed to fight to avoid being stripped. He rematched when he lost. And we know he tried to make the fights for the last remaining belt he hadn't unified. Wilder confirmed it. Fury reckons he signed for it. I don't think that's even debated.

This is definitely the case, he tried to be the best of his generation but ultimately failed. He’s certainly a fighter with a lot of integrity and willingness to test himself. It’s clear a lot of people on here don’t like Joshua and hope he fails, so you highlighting the reality of his career so far will be ignored.

[Eff Pandas]

When you only fight 1-2 times a year yeah unfortunately it will take that long. He needs to be fighting 3-4 times a year at least. If he really wants to be Undisputed then he needs to be willing to work for it.

Who's fighting 3-4x a year on the regular?

No one who matters is fighting 3-4x a year. The avg top ten guy is fighting every 8mos or 3x every 2yrs. Thats the sport now. I don't see it changing.

[Eff Pandas]

Big guy, you are fighting Wallin. In 9 days. Remember.

Maybe you should stop talking about Wilder and Fury for a little.

LOL good point. I think most see there is upset potential with Otto already & AJ talking about all this other sh^t besides his fight in 9 days is karma fuel for the boxing gods.

[Eff Pandas]

If Usyk wins I think he's right. I think Usyk is likely to retire if he beats Fury twice. And there isn't a lot of appeal for Usyk vs AJ 3 if Usyk doesn't retire. And all the belts going everywhere when he retires so getting them all lined up again is gonna be hard.

But if Fury wins, while I think a belt or two might get stripped over the rematch or random dumb sh^t Fury does, I think there is still appeal to see Fury vs AJ & AJ, with his name value & ranking, would be in a great position to pick up a loose belt or two & then unify with Fury, or whoever beats Fury, in maybe 2yrs give or take.