Anthony Joshua has become very, very underrated recently.

[JayBoy]

He isnt underated. Hes grossly overated tbh. Hes never fought an elite heavyweight like wilder and fury have (each other) and is getting respect for knocking out has beens and old men just because they were top 10. Pulev to be honest had one of the most basic styles i have ever seen jab jab right hand jab jab left hook and still managed to survive aj when he was knocked down twice. His uppercut isnt all that either im pretty sure i saw pulev eat 4 uppercuts in a row at one point without budging. Canelo has a better uppercut as does inoue forget about since tyson lol

1. Are we talking about the same Pulev that turned his back in the third round because he didn't wanna be in there anymore? The same uppercuts that put him down twice. Pulev getting up days more about Pulev's heart than Joshua's lack of power.

2. Wilder isn't an elite heavyweight by any stretch of the imagination. His resume is substandard at best. Fury is the only top tier heavyweight he's faced and he lost 16 out of 19 rounds.

If we're counting Klitschko as a top tier opponent for Fury (and rightly so), then you must count him as one for Joshua too. The fights were only 17 months apart.

3. There isn't another heavyweight in the division with a resume that comes close to matching AJ's. No one has beaten more current or former active top 10 heavyweights (as ranked at the time of their respective fights) as Anthony Joshua has. You can only beat what's available and AJ has routinely fought the best available and has never avoided a mandatory.

4. Re: stepping up - Based on what I've heard from both parties in the AJ v Wilder negotiations, as well as Wilder's Freudian slip in his tweet, I believe AJ and his team were game for the fight and tried to make it happen throughout 2017/2018 while Wilder's team were not. It's been evident that Joshua is a risk taker. You cannot blame him if someone doesn't want to fight him.

5. You don't have to love him or think he's the best heavyweight, Fury is the best pound for pound for me, but this irrational hatred has to stop.

[Kezzer]

1. Are we talking about the same Pulev that turned his back in the third round because he didn't wanna be in there anymore? The same uppercuts that put him down twice. Pulev getting up days more about Pulev's heart than Joshua's lack of power.

2. Wilder isn't an elite heavyweight by any stretch of the imagination. His resume is substandard at best. Fury is the only top tier heavyweight he's faced and he lost 16 out of 19 rounds.

If we're counting Klitschko as a top tier opponent for Fury (and rightly so), then you must count him as one for Joshua too. The fights were only 17 months apart.

3. There isn't another heavyweight in the division with a resume that comes close to matching AJ's. No one has beaten more current or former active top 10 heavyweights (as ranked at the time of their respective fights) as Anthony Joshua has. You can only beat what's available and AJ has routinely fought the best available and has never avoided a mandatory.

4. Re: stepping up - Based on what I've heard from both parties in the AJ v Wilder negotiations, as well as Wilder's Freudian slip in his tweet, I believe AJ and his team were game for the fight and tried to make it happen throughout 2017/2018 while Wilder's team were not. It's been evident that Joshua is a risk taker. You cannot blame him if someone doesn't want to fight him.

5. You don't have to love him or think he's the best heavyweight, Fury is the best pound for pound for me, but this irrational hatred has to stop.

On point 4, you don’t really even need to know what the negotiations were. Look at the history before it.

Wilders team refused to let him fight Klitschko, saying it was “too early”. Joshua beat Klitschko in his 18th fight.

Wilder had chance to take on Martin to unify but didn’t push it, Joshua took the opportunity.

Wilder had a chance to take on Parker to unify but didn’t push it, Joshua took the opportunity.

Wilder refused to fight whyte, telling him he would wait at least two years. Joshua had already beaten him.

Wilders only notable win was against Ortiz who also turned down significantly more money to fight wilder rather than Joshua.

Joshua has also fought Povetkin, Parker, Takam, Brezeale, Ruiz, Pulev and would have fought Miller too had he not pulled out for positive drug testing. We also know fury has turned down offers to fight Joshua previously.

Only person near the top who haven’t had the chance to fight AJ yet is Usyk who only recently moved up to heavyweight and arguably Hunter - although he’s probably not even top10 anyway.