Sky Box Office fight night: September 22 AJ vs. AP

megadodge

Blanco100 wrote: »

None of these guys are certainties to beat the other. There is no clear favourite in fights between Joshua, Fury and Wilder.

The Fury that beat Wlad would easily frustrate AJ and Wilder and win by decision. Not so sure now, although I do expect Fury would need to make it a stinker of a fight in order to win.

AJ seems to have more weapons and finishing ability but pouring it on against Povetkin is alot different to doing it again Fury and Wilder. Similarly, he went life or death against Wlad and could just have as easily been defeated in that instance. My view is that AJ is still transitioning into a more balanced (even more boring fighter) who will use his advantages in dimensions to rule the division. Lewis did it, Wlad did it when they dropped the gung ho approach that left them susceptible to being KO'd.

Reading this forum, it really shows there is either over estimation of Fury's ability or under estimation of it. Talk of him having a suspect chin is all well and good, but his style makes it hard to find his chin, he posesses good head movement and footwork for such a big man. He suffered some heavy knockdowns earlier in his career but hasn't been on the canvass in 5 and a half years. Saying AJ would walk him down and knock him out at will is extremely naive. Also theres an argument to be made that Povetkins jab seemed to land at will and Fury's reach advantage would mean its a mere formality that his jab would have alot of success against Joshua.

But those claiming its a certain win for Fury also need to take his inactivity into account. He has it all to prove in that respect.

All these guys have the power to hurt each other lets not kid ourselves that Fury cannot KO Joshua or vice versa. Its heavyweight boxing. Wlad had a long reign as champion with a suspect chin once he started using his dimensions and natural advantages in skill and reach over his opponents.

The issue now is we have 3 guys with size and long reach. Wilder obviously has the edge in terms of power and his unorthodox style makes him interesting aswell. He could come undone though against a fighter with similar reach but a higher ring IQ however. His power is only as good as his opponent takes it.

Fury, whilst not having the most concussive punching power probably has the best ring IQ of the 3 big men. He will frustrate the other 2, but time will tell whether he will have issues holding them off for 12 rounds.

AJ probably has more of a mix of the other 2, better ring IQ than Wilder (but not as much as Fury), and hit harder than Fury (but not as hard as Wilder), but he probably does finish better than Wilder.

Its fascinating really, none of these guys are absolutely top quality and its possible they could all beat each other. Whoever is best able to develop a style that doesn't see their whiskers get tested regularly whilst not sacrifing offensive output, this will be the guy to rule the division.

In fairness Joshua is probably the one with most potential, but he needs polishing in fairness. The "amateur pedigree" masks alot of technical flaws also of a guy who actually only had a very short but frutiful amateur career. His world championship silver is actually more impressive than his olympic medal (which was a gift).

My view: Fury will outpoint Wilder to take the WBC belt. Joshua will fight Fury for the lot and will probably win a very close decision in a fight the oppositon fans will scream robbery either way (but unless you KO Joshua you will find it hard to get a decision in the UK). But I think Joshua will show spurts of aggression that the judges will favour, whereas Fury will try and outbox him but the shots won't be clean enough. There will be periods of the fight where its clear AJ is being outboxed but it won't be that way for the duration.

Wilder V AJ could go either way in fairness, case of who lands first.

While I might not agree with absolutely everything in your post, I have to say it's nice to read a well thought out and more importantly a well balanced post for a change.