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The "Witton Lane" Boxing Chat Thread


Dr_Pangloss

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Was really impressed with how fresh AJ looked in the last 2 or 3 rounds, last few fights he’s had he’d have been blowing by then big time.

As others have said though, Ruiz screwed himself coming in so heavy, I mean he was never gonna come in light but he could have gone for something in between.

I just don’t see the appeal for a 3rd fight, given that if it occurred it would be a replica of this latest one, not the first (you would strongly imagine).

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1 hour ago, Dr_Pangloss said:

He's definitely at a turning point. His career is mirroring Wladimir Klitschko's, but I'd maintain that Wlad had a lot more skill and more power than Joshua. But basically like Klitschko he got undone and stopped by mediocre opposition and exposed for not having great stamina, specifically not enough stamina to fight aggressively. An underlying weak chin was also exposed with Wlad i.e. in the Sanders, Brewster, Sam Peter 1 and Davarryl Williamson fights, and the same with Joshua but less dramatically (Whyte hurt him bad, Wlad had him hurt bad, Povetkin rocked him and Ruiz stopped him).

Wlad enlisted in Manny Steward's services and he turned him into a risk averse fighter who boxed and moved, centring everything on the jab, moving laterally, throwing the right hand behind the jab cautiously, leading with the left hook sparingly. Joshua is doing the same. Despite having a weak chin Wladimir went on for like a decade unbeaten, had a handful of rocky moments and only started to lose again with age IMO. 

Can Joshua do the same? I don't know. He's very vulnerable and still hasn't perfected the Klitschko style. Credit for doing it well last night but this was against a borderline obese and small opponent. Can he do it against guys like Wilder and Fury who are at least as tall and rangy as him? 

For me Joshua does lack a bit in the skills department but he is being better optimised for his gifts now than he was being. The bottom line is that the division is pretty weak, he could well go on to reign for a long time with the right moves but I think at this age he's one stoppage defeat away from retirement. 

One great thing he did was that when he did get hurt he got the **** out of there. In the first fight he was far to keen to engage after being hurt which is straight of the Amir Khan playbook. Had he got involved in fisticuffs he would have been out on his arse again

Showed much more ring nous last night

I think he will take Pulev next, Usyk even though smaller is way to dangerous at southpaw given his technical abilities

FWIW I think Usyk, Fury and Wilder all beat AJ

Edited by KHV
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Just can’t see anyone paying to watch Joshua v Ruiz 3. The first fight clearly a fluke win for Ruiz. Joshua more scared of losing and was ultra defensive.

It needs to be someone who is going to have a go. 
 

I’d love to see him fight either Fury or Wilder but as has been said, Eddie will see that as too risky for his cash cow.

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This version of Joshua v Fury would be a bore. Jab fest with both reluctant to engage. 

AJ comes alive when emotion is running through him. For that there needs to be some animosity prior to the fight and/or within the fight. But this is when he is at his most vulnerable too. 

Edited by West
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Crawford having a few wobbly moments against a C level welterweight last night. Even got very clearly dropped but the hometown ref ruled it a slip. At 32 years old, and a resume full of average opponents, I really think he has to fight legit A level welterweights or go down as a very overrated fighter.

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Fury split with trainer Ben Davison today. Rumours abound that he's gonna be trained by Sugar Hill. No real downside to this. Massive upgrade in fairness no disrespect to Davison. Wouldn't be at all surprised to see Andy Lee has some involvement in this. He's close to Fury and knows Hill very well from his Kronk days. 

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11 hours ago, Dr_Pangloss said:

Crawford having a few wobbly moments against a C level welterweight last night. Even got very clearly dropped but the hometown ref ruled it a slip. At 32 years old, and a resume full of average opponents, I really think he has to fight legit A level welterweights or go down as a very overrated fighter.

If Bob can't deliver Crawford a grade A opponent next year he should just buy out the remainder of his contract like Mayweather did when he was with him, go with Haymon, then there is no barrier to fighting a Thurman , Garcia, Porter or Spence ( still not sure what his situation is ) I like Crawford, there's no ducking in him. Comes across as too quiet though. He shouldn't be fighting some Lithuanian nobody knows at this stage. Top rank have no top welterweights. Needs to move. I agree, his resume is pretty thin.

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Dunno why I'm even bumping this to talk about Dubois as that's the second fight in a row where a complete mismatch has been served up to him.  Fujimoto could have been seriously hurt in that bout and we've learned nothing we didn't already know about Dubois. Great jab, huge right hand, but he shouldn't be using them to nearly kill bums who are being offered lots of money to face him.  

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Think Fury will be seeing stars this time around,  he'll no doubt try and do the same as last time but I think Wilder will look to catch him with something early on after realising  he doesn't really have to worry about Fury actually hurting him. I was going to say that a couple of bum fights & buggering around wrestling for a bit hasn't been one of his more productive years but for Fury that is actually pretty good going and far more than he has done for most of the past 7 years

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2 hours ago, LakotaDakota said:

Think Fury will be seeing stars this time around,  he'll no doubt try and do the same as last time but I think Wilder will look to catch him with something early on after realising  he doesn't really have to worry about Fury actually hurting him. I was going to say that a couple of bum fights & buggering around wrestling for a bit hasn't been one of his more productive years but for Fury that is actually pretty good going and far more than he has done for most of the past 7 years

I think Fury punches hard enough. He hurt Wilder in the 12th when Wilder thought he had him done. If Fury had no punching power, Wilder could of opened up and pulled the trigger at any stage. He didn't and probably couldn't because Fury is too good of a pure boxer for him. He's no fool. If he opens up and tries to take him out early doors, he'll get hit often. 

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2 hours ago, Brumstopdogs said:

Fury to outbox Wilder but then get knocked out.

Yeah I think this time Wilder will go hard early on and land a couple of meaty blows that slow the big man down.

Fury will avoid most but won't be able to land enough to get him off.

I'm probably underestimating Fury again, I have done his whole career.

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1 hour ago, Genie said:

I saw that and first thought was, it won’t happen. One of them will pull out.

Dunno, lot of money in the pot for this. They've known about Feb 22nd for quite some time , even before Wilder rematched Ortiz.

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8 hours ago, Dr_Pangloss said:

He doesn't. 

On Showtime his ratings are pretty impressive. He's not drawing a huge gate but who draws huge gates in America. Biggest venues hold probably 20 k max. He's not headlined a PPV yet. That'll be the teller. Can't headline a PPV fighting a dud. Mayweather won't let him near Lomachenko. 

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