Joshua is still 5 to 6 fights away from his prime.

[oscar9992]

Big Tall Heavyweights reach their Prime in their 30's. 30-35 Years range is the best years of the most HW's.

[New England]

so you don't think the guy with the biggst bullseye on his back, who does take shots, and who fights in a division of giants where everybody can hurt you, won't start detiorating for another 15 fights ?


jesus christ you guys are soft in the head.


joshua's probably not even taking 15 more fights. he's going to be in a new tax bracket in a year or two once he beats wilder and fights in las vegas.

[sotgoda]

Who has a proven track record of stepping up consistently and who has been fighting bums for 39 straight fights?

Both or neither. Unless you are still drinking the BS koolaid. If fighting Charles Martin is a step up, then I don't know what else to tell you. Anyone would have fought a guy who won his belt by the retirement of an injured opponent. So, don't make it sound like a huge achievement. We all know how AJ got his belt. Further, Wilder offered to fight Charles for his belt but did not have the money to pay him like AJ's uncle, Eddie. Charles would have been ****** to turn that amount down. So, he did what he should and went to lay down in UK.

Further, AJ who according to you always steps up, avoided Luis Ortiz like a plague, paid him off and had Eddie sign him up so that they could avoid him. Instead, they fought a fallen legend in Wlad who was 41+, almost 2 years out of his last fight and was already embarrassed by a Fury who hardly threw a punch.

These are what you call stepping up. Lol... I honestly don't know how you guys sleep at night with the lack of objectivity and a sincere assessment of how AJ got his belts.

If AJ had fought Ortiz like he should have and beat him, and then beat Wlad, I will agree with the stepping up. But, he did not. You better hope your boy wins on 03/31. Then, let's see him step up to Wilder.

[sotgoda]

OK first off - Joshua hasn't been avoiding that fight, I think everyone can agree on that. The first negotiations happened before Christmas and you sensed with how quickly both teams moved on to other fights that they both felt it was premature, Wilder's 50/50 demand was silly, and Hearn was not much interested at that time in continuing.

As far as the bold - can both things not be true? Can he not be the best currently, but still reluctant to fight a certain fighter or style. To be honest I am not sure if Wilder is his biggest threat, I am not even sure if Joshua is the best. What I do know is - Joshua's defence is improving but still leaky, and that is a recipe for disaster against someone like Wilder. I don't think its a fight that he can't win, I would actually still have my money on Joshua, his shorter crisper punches are more likely to land first, but I would still have it as a 50/50 maybe 60-40.

I think given a scope and time to improve Joshua's chances only go up and Wilder's chances get worse, which is exactly why Wilder's team want the fight asap and why Joshua's people would rather wait. If you take posturing and fronting from both sides (fans included) out of the equation this is the reality of the situation in a nutshell.

AJ is avoiding the fight. Saying otherwise is BS. He first said he wants to put himself in the best position to beat Wilder. Then, he suddenly began to say that if Wilder is reasonable, come on.

Secondly, the meeting in November had an action item for Eddie to provide rough P&L estimates for UK and Vegas, which he did not provide. Shelly Finkle exposed him. There was no 50/50 negotiations or discussion at all - the timeline shows the BS about that.

[HarvardBlue]

Once again with this logic lomachenko won’t reach his prime till another 4 years.

Man stop trying to bring logic into this conversation.

The only measure of prime is the amount of fight a boxer has been in. It has nothing to do with age or physical peak.

At least according to this guy.

[JasonBoxing]

Man stop trying to bring logic into this conversation.

The only measure of prime is the amount of fight a boxer has been in. It has nothing to do with age or physical peak.

At least according to this guy.

Don't know why people keep bringing in Loma. He is the exception, dude had over 400 amatur fights.

99.9% of heavyweights are not in their prime at 19 fights. Don't know why that's hard to understand.

Tyson Lewis ALI/wlad/vitali/foreman/frazier/liston/louis/ never hit their primes at 19 fights.

So Joshua freakishly is the FIRST HW in history to hit his prime at 19 fights ??

That's bizarre.

[Sparked_26]

Maybe but the moment you become a world champion you have to fight the best. AJ is selling out stadiums. Whilst Wilder's career went at a snails pace early they have both reached the top table at the same time.

With fractured world titles sometimes fighters get away with not fighting the best but with AJ potentially having 3 titles it would be unacceptable for him to avoid Wilder.

I do get a bit dubious about some of the very young world title holders though. Like Benavidez at 168. He's only 21, but he has a recognised world title with a division full of pretty decent operators. He can't really drop a level of competition now but if you handled him I think you'd be cautious.

Reminds me of Canelo fighting Matt Hatton and Ryan Rhodes. A lot of fighters must have been scratching their heads at those defences

[HarvardBlue]

Don't know why people keep bringing in Loma. He is the exception, dude had over 400 amatur fights.

99.9% of heavyweights are not in their prime at 19 fights. Don't know why that's hard to understand.

Tyson Lewis ALI/wlad/vitali/foreman/frazier/liston/louis/ never hit their primes at 19 fights.

So Joshua freakishly is the FIRST HW in history to hit his prime at 19 fights ??

That's bizarre.

I didn't bring up Lomachenko but he's an example of the flaw in your assessment.

My issue is you're basing "prime" on the amount of fights Joshua has. You're telling me a young Mike Tyson mowing down opponents one after the other was not in prime shape as when he started going the distance in his 20th and 21st fights. If your argument is we're not sure how good Joshua is yet I would buy it but to say he's not in prime shape (physically and mentally) now makes no sense. His fights will get tougher. His body will break down more every single day from now on. The answer is we don't know. And 5 or 6 fights sound like an arbitrary number you came up with.

[BigZ44]

I agree, with when HW's normally peak and the lack of rounds and experience for Joshua, I think he's still a few years away from hitting his prime. However, THAT is no excuse to avoid any fights. When you've gone for belts and become the champ you have to be willing to take on the challenges that come with it. I believe we will see peak Joshua between 2020 and 2025

[hugh grant]

Prime isn't a science. Josh may take a battering in next fight and never be the same again.
But I agree Josh will improve for next 6 years or so. He can go onto be one of the best ever.