Will Anthony Joshua be the next great heavyweight?

[kiDynamite92]

I know he went down vs that drugs cheat guy

who else?

Is it David Price level (down 19 times)

that 'drug cheat' was in his first amateur bout. he was also hurt several times by nistor mihai and megomedrasul mehdzidov

[LacedUp]

Good post.

Hughie Fury is the perfect model for AJ to follow in terms of activity imo. Unfortunately i dont see Hearn putting AJ on untelevised shows like HF has been doing with Hennessy, which could limit his opportunities to fight regularly.

Ideally yes, but people won't accept that.

Joshua starts 10-15 fights ahead of Fury because of that Gold Medal. The public will put a lot of pressure on him to step it up or they will become frustrated with him like they did with Audley.

[HWChampion]

I think he will crack under the pressure.

[Flux]

I think people aren't really reading enough into the questionable chin accusation. No one's actually seen the Nistor fight, and he hits like an absolute truck. Medzhidov also, he had stopped all of his opponents, apart from Dychko in Semi's, who he stunned 3 or 4 times. Anthony got stunned a few times, but that's because one of his weaknesses is, when he gets hit, he fights fire with fire, rather than defending. The Whyte fight, he was super inexperienced.

A couple of the gold medallists at the Olympics, shouldn't have been in the final, but everyone talks about Joshua. I also think he won that fight with Cammarelle, watching those 1st 2 rounds, they were even, yes Joshua got stunned, but that doesn't count for more points. It was even, with the only clear round being the 3rd, which Joshua won.

It's pretty amazing what he's achieved with such little experience, the only other guy to really do that as an amateur is George Foreman.

[Axl Rose]

He isnt a gold medal worthy. Only corruption gave that gold medal. He lost every fight i saw...hope he gets KTFO

[Flux]

He isnt a gold medal worthy. Only corruption gave that gold medal. He lost every fight i saw...hope he gets KTFO

The only fight he should've lost was the Savon one

[Rocky...]

He didn't deserve that gold medal, Savon was robbed, and Roberto beat him in the final tho it was a lot closer than the savon fight.

Time will tell how he does in the pros, but I doubt he will do anything special, Hughie fury will be a bigger star.

[soul_survivor]

He didn't deserve that gold medal, Savon was robbed, and Roberto beat him in the final tho it was a lot closer than the savon fight.

Time will tell how he does in the pros, but I doubt he will do anything special, Hughie fury will be a bigger star.

I'm Brit and I'm never popular when I voice opinions about Joshua's run in the Olympics but fact is you are right, Joshua shouldn't even have been in the final let alone win the gold medal.

Having said that, Josh is a great natural athlete and done quite a bit in a short but spectacular am career. His professional career is uncertain, I doubt he will reach world level while the Klits are still around. By the time the Klits retire the division will be bare and Josh has a great chance of winning a title but I really don't see him as a saviour or any such thing.

[stefl14]

Joshua is a great athlete. Better than Klitschko is, better than Lewis was. In the superstars think in the UK after the olympics (basically lots of fitness challenges in different things e.g. 100m, 800m, cycling speed test, gym test etc) he won pretty comfortably despite going against professional athletes from other sports that are purely fitness based (went against people like Farah). This was kind of a fun thing only but he ran the 100 in 11.5 in absolutely terrible conditions with sub-par technique (apparently he regularly ran sub 11s when he was younger) and ran 2:26 in 800m. This latter stat might not seem that impressive (although it's still solid for most people who are very fit) until you consider that the man is 17 stone (he's something like 235lbs). A man that big running close to 11s in 100 and 2:26 in 800m is ridiculous considering he was only an amateur at the time.

Despite all of this, I'm not convinced by Joshua's boxing abilities. His athleticism has got him far but athleticism only counts for so much in this game. At this point people tend to say "what about Roy Jones?" The fact is that Roy Jones was an extremely skilled boxer whose athleticism allowed him to box unconventionally. He was extremely skilled and had ATG ring generalship despite his unconventional nature. These things don't apply to AJ - he is much less experienced that someone like RJJ and it shows. He won the gold but he shouldn't really have. So far AJ is just a big man who is one of the best physical athletes in the game (and judging by his stats probably one of the best in sports) and that has got him far. Unless he drastically improves though (he certainly can) he'll get found out.

[soul_survivor]

Yeah good points....that have been made a million times already this thread. Thanks though, for being so original.