Quote Originally Posted by Beanz View Post
He hasn't stopped anyone for three years. Memphis is right there is some bizarre stuff going on but most of it is over thinking. He doesn't have the natural ring IQ of someone like Lennox or a great like Steward helping him to add layers to his game without dulling the edge of his most dangerous weapons.

Those couple of left jabs that got him close enough to finish the fight could have been employed much earlier to get into range but getting clipped by Ruiz and then out smarted by Uysk has left him a bit gunshy.

That said Wilder's reckless abandon puts him in the danger zone much more often and earlier than Helenius and Fury thinking he is way better than he actually is could similarly put him in the path of a way more devestating uppercut than the one he punched himself with.

He will never do enough to shut some of the boo boys up but if he stops Wilder...
If... It puts Fury's wins into a little more perspective and throws some sand into the big dossers porridge to make that fight a potential classic.

Joshua has over achieved and to his credit rematching the fighters that beat him has proved that Wilder and Fury have always been the cones in the road, whilst AJ and Uysk are getting their heads down and doing the job in front of them.

He will need a bit of luck or early success to give him the belief to get him close enough to stop Wilder but he has the fundamentals and tools to stop him spectacularly. Still a dice roll fight, but well worth the gamble, if only to leave 'greedy belly' with nowhere to hide.
Great post, and very true that Joshua is an over thinker. Also , he has a very savvy trainer in his corner, and they will have identified that the way to beat Wilder is by using better boxing fundamentals to keep Wilder cautious and then when he does lose patience or tires (which will happen) and he flies in all legs and arms , then Joshua can counter him and put him on the deck.
He could try to fight fire with fire, but that turns it into a 50/50 toss up and plays to Wilder’s lack of ringcraft.
This is not to say AJ is a great technical boxer, but he needs to trust his fundamentals . The overthinking comes because this is all new to him .
I happen to think fighting Helenius was a better warm up for Wilder than Whyte would’ve been . Helenius gave AJ technical problems to overcome , which he did and that will help his confidence grow. He’s also a similar height and reach and the punches will be coming at those angles.
Whyte , although will throw big overhead rights like Wilder does, he is slow and cumbersome and slightly shorter .
All in all , another step forward for Joshua.