Comments Thread For: Anthony Joshua Indicates Only "Five Years" Left in His Career

[Jack Rivers]

Fury will retire AJ

A lot of boxers say this.... Start seeing their bank accounts deplete and then come back to make money. Ali said this time and time again, Tyson, Frazier, Mayweather and ect...

They always think they got 1 more after the last 1 more.

Tyson Fury will retire AJ like he did Wilder.

[Jkp]

I'll always bet the over when someone in their prime or around that prime age gives me their retirement plans.

That said I hope he's out sooner than that or on that timeline. This ain't no sport for old guys & in boxing your past prime at 32, 33 more often than not.

Then why is AJ fighting so many 40+ year olds?

Quite pathetic how he has constantly avoiding the top 2 guys who are in there prime while lining up 40 year olds.

[Oregonian]

AJ would be the exact type that could knock Lewis out ,he won’t get the recognition he deserves well after retirement just like Lewis ,the social media aspect definitely has not made fans smarter .

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I like Lewis and I’m a fan of his. My issue is those that keep harping on about him being “the only fighter that beat all his opponents” - that statement is BS because it leaves out context. And that context is the fact that Lewis got destroyed by two guys that don’t even rank in the top 30 HW of all time.

Sure he won the rematches but his (I assume) British fans want to hide the KO losses with a blanket statement like that.

To give you context and an actual truth, Calzaghe, Mayweather and Andre Ward beat every single fighter they faced. They all retired with an undefeated record. Lewis did not.

Again, I am a fan of Lewis and believe he’s a top 10 HW all time.

[Bonduu]

Then why is AJ fighting so many 40+ year olds?

Quite pathetic how he has constantly avoiding the top 2 guys who are in there prime while lining up 40 year olds.

****** alert!

[ShoulderRoll]

Technically true but you and I both know that the first 5 years of his "Professional" career was mostly tomato cans down in Mexico. Joshua was fighting in the amateurs for a while too before he turned pro. I am not arguing that Joshua has fought as long as Canelo.

I am trying to find out why you think Joshua has one foot out the door and no longer has the same drive as before. Retiring at 35 is perfectly fine for me for either fighter. Canelo has more competitive fights in his future while Joshua may only have truthfully a handful.

You can't simply erase 5 years of Canelo's pro career and say "those were just Mexican tomato cans."

On top of that he also had an amateur career too, which adds another 46 fights.

So if he chooses to call it quits in five years it will be a lot different than if Joshua does.

[Kezzer]

————-

I like Lewis and I’m a fan of his. My issue is those that keep harping on about him being “the only fighter that beat all his opponents” - that statement is BS because it leaves out context. And that context is the fact that Lewis got destroyed by two guys that don’t even rank in the top 30 HW of all time.

Sure he won the rematches but his (I assume) British fans want to hide the KO losses with a blanket statement like that.

To give you context and an actual truth, Calzaghe, Mayweather and Andre Ward beat every single fighter they faced. They all retired with an undefeated record. Lewis did not.

Again, I am a fan of Lewis and believe he’s a top 10 HW all time.

I’m not saying Lewis is the best of all time, because I really don’t think he is - but unbeaten records are overhyped and are particularly more difficult at heavyweight level.

Mayweather and Cazaghe cherry picked for sure, just like wilder did when he was on his long unbeaten run too.

Bringing it back to AJ that’s why I have far more respect for him than wilder and fury currently. He is the only modern heavyweight who really has taken on a over 5 high level opponents. I hope fury and wilder will do so overtime but at the moment fury has taken on two opponents (three matches) top20 in my eyes and has won 2 of those 3 fights. He could quite easily have two losses on his record given his fight against McDermott (his own team believed he was behind never mind the public) & Wallin (should’ve been stopped for cut).

Where Joshua has lost a fight to Ruiz people can ignore it not - but he has increased his risk of a loss of that nature by taking on Whyte, Povetkin, Klitschko, Parker, Pulev, Ruiz, etc

In terms of him saying he may retire in 5 years time, I really don’t see why that would impact his performance at all. Five years is so far away it’s not really something effecting him now and it’s proven in many sports that performance can quite easily be enhanced with experience as you edge towards retirement. Look at F1 for example, Hamilton has probably just had his best performing season yet - I can’t remember a single mistake he made; and yet retirement has consistently been spoken about during the season.

[Corelone]

I envy the greedy bstrd. Andy got what amounted to one of AJs paydays and it ruined him. Two fights a year for... that's 200 million dollars! 100% undiluted envy.

[Tecnoworld]

After Fury he'll quit.

[ShoulderRoll]

He turned pro when he was 24. How many fights do you expect him to have? 40 would be perfectly fine. He will most likely have less than 40 fights though.

Evander Holyfield had 57 fights.
Lennox had 44 fights.
Wladimir Klinchko had 69. His brother had 47.

[Jkp]

I’m not saying Lewis is the best of all time, because I really don’t think he is - but unbeaten records are overhyped and are particularly more difficult at heavyweight level.

Mayweather and Cazaghe cherry picked for sure, just like wilder did when he was on his long unbeaten run too.

Bringing it back to AJ that’s why I have far more respect for him than wilder and fury currently. He is the only modern heavyweight who really has taken on a over 5 high level opponents. I hope fury and wilder will do so overtime but at the moment fury has taken on two opponents (three matches) top20 in my eyes and has won 2 of those 3 fights. He could quite easily have two losses on his record given his fight against McDermott (his own team believed he was behind never mind the public) & Wallin (should’ve been stopped for cut).

Where Joshua has lost a fight to Ruiz people can ignore it not - but he has increased his risk of a loss of that nature by taking on Whyte, Povetkin, Klitschko, Parker, Pulev, Ruiz, etc

In terms of him saying he may retire in 5 years time, I really don’t see why that would impact his performance at all. Five years is so far away it’s not really something effecting him now and it’s proven in many sports that performance can quite easily be enhanced with experience as you edge towards retirement. Look at F1 for example, Hamilton has probably just had his best performing season yet - I can’t remember a single mistake he made; and yet retirement has consistently been spoken about during the season.

The only decent win AJ has had is vs Parker.
And even then he had to cheat his way to victory with a blatantly compromised referee.

• Whyte - exposed hype job who should not be in top 10. Cheated, ducked and fouled his way to a few lucky wins to bluff his way into top 10.
• Ruiz - was not in anyones top 10 when they fought. Beat AJ soundly. Before forgetting to train.
• Povetkin - 40+ geriatric
• Klitchko - 40+ geriatric
• Pulev - 40+ geriatric

Wins against over 40's and obese athletes too lazy to train are hardly the makings of a champion.