What are these huge gains that Joshua has made?
He was crawling around the ring 3 fights ago after being beat up by Andy Ruiz. Before that I don't think he was hugely convincing against fighters like Takam, Parker and Povetkin.
Credit to Joshua for the way he handled Ruiz in the rematch but it was just completely risk free tactics against someone almost a foot shorter than him and ridiculous out of shape.
Then he beat Pulev who was slow ponderous and has zero head movement or defence.
I can see the argument for Joshua winning and an argument for Fury maybe being a bit stale due to a lack of activity but to say Joshua is improving and Fury is stalling, I dont agree with that. Its just so ridiculously biased.
He's learned a lot, fought almost every style going and not fought a bum for years. His chin is not so weak anymore, now knows not to be too heavy/ big, doesn't gas out as much, knows what it's like to underestimate someone.
He's beat 4,5,6,9, easily beat more top 10/20 fighters than any of the others and done it faster/ younger too. His main challenger (Windmill) wouldn't fight him, so windmill took a fight against Fury (who he underestimated, and also got shown up for what he really is (a windmill)).
Ruiz was a last minute agreement, so AJ had little preparation and underestimated him big time, even more so after AJ had floored him. He let his guard down and ruiz landed a lucky hit to the back/ side of his head, which obviously really affected him, but it didn't happen the second time around (a lesson). He beat Takam, Parker and Povetkin though, all top 20 fighters, none of which Wilder or Fury beat.
Povetkin was old and slow, but was largely made to look that way by AJ also. Povetkin wasn't a mug though and only Klitschko beat him previous (a better version of klitchko that either Fury or Joshua faced).
You could also say who has Fury beat, ever? 40-year-old Klitschko and windmill wilder, who kept dodging AJ and who himself was 35?
Wlad was far, far from his peak, and "the windmill" has lots of wins, but it's like having lots of wins against pub drunks. The fact is proven as Wilder has barely left the US and barely fought anyone from outside the USA or it's neighbouring countries, despite Europe having the bigger names and more talent. He's only beat Ortiz, in the top 10, but Ortiz has never beat anyone in the top 10 either (a bum hunter, beat another bum hunter).
I'm not saying it's biased to AJ, I'm saying it's even if anything.
I just don't see why people have Fury so far ahead, what grounds? I think AJ is undervalued, for me, he's in better shape, stronger, fitter, harder puncher and has more top 10 wins. Fury is probably equal or very close on ability, largely due to height/ movement/ awkwardness, but a good fighter over 12 rounds can beat him, even if they don't knock him out. Fury's a cracking fighter and they're definitely 1&2, but imo his list of wins isn't as impressive if you drill into the detail. There's tow big names in his fight list, but one was passed it and the other one was the most over-rated fighter of the last 20 years.
- I've stopped listening to him he spouts off stuff pretty much after hearing it from Hearn. He's almost finished.
