Anthony Joshua v Oleksandr Usyk 2

[X]

Much better performance from Joshua, but Usyk is just his kryptonite. AJ like his feet set when he throws punches and Usyk just gives to many angles and makes you reset.

There was another thread on here about Michael Spinks, that was what Spinks used to do as well.

Usyk showed masterful footwork, technique and bravery against a guy who dwarfed him. I really am gobsmacked about the judge who gave the score to Joshua as I had Usyk as a clear winner again.

Nothing wrong in giving your all, fighting bravely and never giving up. Joshua fought well.

When you box, the first thing you learn is respect for your opponent, the ref and the occasion. Terrible behaviour from Joshua at the end and it does seem a bit unforgivable. Having said that, I don’t know what actually went on that made him lose the plot so much.

Usyk … model pro, coruscating talent and clever and emotionally mature enough enough to carry himself like the champion he is.

[NoSavingByTheBell]

AJ is pretty much finished. 3 losses of his last 4 fights is it? But its not just the losses, as any fighter can rebound, but he doesn't have that killer instinct needed. His body shots were very effective, but he just doesn't go for the fucking kill. That KO by Andy really spooked him, he will not let it all hang out and go for a knockout due to that. But a huge huge guy like AJ should really capitalize on his strength and monster size. He fights like a cat now. Not aggressive enough except for that 9th round where he really did shine --- briefly. I don't know how marketable he is now. He is tarnished. He is boring and NOW, he has proven a childish, mentally unstable juvenile. For a moment it looked he would "pull a Tyson" there, I thought when he reversed course from heading to the dressing room that he was going back in to bite Usyk's ear or something. Did you hear what he first said to Usyk when he returned to the ring? He said something like "Boxing takes skills, man, boxing takes skills, you need skills to win, I have skills, so how did you beat me? How did you beat me?" What a cry baby/arrogant or whatever. Then when on the microphone he tried to spin it and say CHAMP CHAMP CHAMP, but it was too late.

[Beanz]

There is no excuse for the post fight rant but the idea that this fight somehow exposed Joshua as a fraud who can't fight or the idea that he is a coward or is spooked or is finished is ridiculous. It says much more about the people making such claims than Joshua. Usyk is on another level bu Joshua was absolutely in there with him for all 12 rounds and showed some real changes and ability to box to instruction. This is a guy who has knocked out 22 fighters as a pro and many of them were better than either Fury or Wilder faced. it is also very telling how quickly so many on social media have already shown their true colours by crying about AJ's shop comments as though they never considered him British anyway. The whole anthem thing is stupid in a sport were it is about two people in a ring in the most honest distillation of sport and desire you could ever create. Having the fight in a country that would torture you for supposed blasphemy and where conversion from Islam to Christianity would leave you without a head also shows the hypocrisy of Usyk thanking Jesus in a country were his faith is illegal. These guys are not role models, they are fighters but lets have a little context and balance.

Wilder /AJ is a great fight and I still think Fury has much to prove. Usyk may well make him look like a clown.

[Denilson3.0]

This fight was "Round 13" ......Ding-Ding-Ding

Robert Garcia (AJ's New Trainer) said something interesting about him. He said that AJ would complain in the gym if they don’t give him credit for things he’s doing well. Garcia quickly figured that you need to treat AJ with kid gloves to an extent. If he was brutally honest ? AJ would lose confidence in a heartbeat.

AJ has spent most of his entire pro career in that lottery funded sports institute in Sheffield.

I've been there.









It's beautiful inside. Very clean. Like hospital operating theater clean. Very corporate. People walking around in suits, sitting at tables drinking their latte's with the laptops out.

And that AJ’s problem

It's too nice

It’s not a real boxing gym. It doesn’t have that atmosphere of a real boxing gym were you learn things the hard way through hard trainers, learn veteran moves and rough tactics in the ring. It's made AJ softer and now he needs yes men around him, praising him in moments it’s not needed. He got so used to it that he excepted Robert Garcia to treat him like that too.

I think it's very telling that none of Joshua's corner was at the post fight presser. Just Eddie.

They knew Joshua would not take the risk. He can't compete with top fighters in the HEART category. He'd rather lose pretty than win ugly. It's like he wanted to end Usyk without catching any incoming.

He showed improvements but to be honest ? His shortcomings at this level are impossible to fix. His chin is pretty weak and his stamina isn't where it should be for an elite 12-round fighter. He seems to have zero idea how to tie a fighter up, wrestle fighters on the inside and rough them about. Any top HW with fast hands and feet is krytonite for AJ.

Usyk ? I'm STILL not 100% convinced on him as a HW. Hope we see the Fury fight.

Also the crowd was terrible. It was like watching during covid times when there was NO crowd. You could hear the trainers speaking that’s how quiet it was. They made Japanese boxing crowds look like hellraisers. This is what happens when you whore yourself out to Arab money. A crowd full of Saudi diplomats and millionaires. And no ring girls ? I guess they'd have probably got executed.

They pay to host these events just for bragging rights and status rather than really caring about the sport. It's like when they paid for the WWE to hold events there and they were asking for long dead/retired wrestlers to be on the shows.

And I guess we gotta talk about the AJ speech at the end ?

You know it's bad when you're in the Ring with Chisora and Usyk and you make them seem the sane ones. It's strange times when the boxers carry on like YouTubers and the YouTubers pretend to be boxers

But AJ had his Kanye...."Imma let you finish" moment.



My favourite part was Usyk trying to get his flag back from AJ and then AJ saying 'Be quiet I'm talking'

Like bro what you gonna do? Knock him out? Kidder - He aint like them drunk uni students.

P.S
Someone please keep your eyes on Eddie Hearn, he’s probably on suicide watch about now.

[NoSavingByTheBell]

Nothing worse than seeing a big huge giant guy like Joshua who does not use his size and his power to his advantage. Where is the killer instinct? Only time we really ever saw it was when he knocked out the 41-year-old Klitschko. It's disappointing because after that fight it really looked like he was going to skyrocket to the top and blast everybody out. Fury had one of the most boring fights in history when he beat Klitschko, and then here is Joshua blowing Klitschko out and really smashing him. At that time I really felt Joshua had come into his own prime of his career and would go on to really blaze a trail of high quality knockouts and or victories. What the hell happened after that Klitschko fight I have no idea but mentally he just doesn't really look 100% dedicated. I give him credit for fighting a much better fight this time around, his body attack was brilliant, and he jolted some really bone jarring shots onto usyk that may have knocked out other fighters. He needed to put together five or six jarring shots like that in order to get a knockout. He is a tremendous athlete and a great physical beast, but maybe boxing is not his Sunday punch..

[mrbig1]

AJ is pretty much finished. 3 losses of his last 4 fights is it? But its not just the losses, as any fighter can rebound, but he doesn't have that killer instinct needed. His body shots were very effective, but he just doesn't go for the fucking kill. That KO by Andy really spooked him, he will not let it all hang out and go for a knockout due to that. But a huge huge guy like AJ should really capitalize on his strength and monster size. He fights like a cat now. Not aggressive enough except for that 9th round where he really did shine --- briefly. I don't know how marketable he is now. He is tarnished. He is boring and NOW, he has proven a childish, mentally unstable juvenile. For a moment it looked he would "pull a Tyson" there, I thought when he reversed course from heading to the dressing room that he was going back in to bite Usyk's ear or something. Did you hear what he first said to Usyk when he returned to the ring? He said something like "Boxing takes skills, man, boxing takes skills, you need skills to win, I have skills, so how did you beat me? How did you beat me?" What a cry baby/arrogant or whatever. Then when on the microphone he tried to spin it and say CHAMP CHAMP CHAMP, but it was too late.

I 100% agree. He has never recovered from that KO loss to Ruiz. AJ is done.

[Spicoli]

So cue the hypotheticals...Usyk v Holyfield for all time cruiser to heavy stakes . I got Holy.

Who would you fancy between Usyk and Holyfield? Now that would be a fight.

Can't get over how badly Joshua had him hurt for a second to that body. Usyk literally held his left side and winced. He does camouflage very intelligently. I thought AJ had him!

Here goes AJ making it his moment again, fuck was that

The Brits HATE their own. That is what that was about. Look at the clowns on here.

Mate he lost convincingly and strips the man's National colors off his back and demands a mic to wobble on about grievance? To the victor and such is all I'm saying

it was oleksandr's moment to shine & aj took a dump all over it. he even threw the belts outside the ring. embarrassing

Finally caught that earlier part. Looked like he was motioning them at someone and just flipped them out. Then just sulked out mad and mixed until they turned him around at exit. Really strange.

It is good to hear the real AJ, and the tantrum was part of the grieving of the loss. He acted like a spoilt child but can now move on rebuilding his career on Dazn and their ppv.

However much that is the real AJ I think the best thing for him and only him is to get out of the spotlight for a bit. We talked on this the other day about now guys are expected to be "on" 24-7 and get tunnel vision on cameras, yes-men and being the absolute topic. There is so much more there 'there' to the post fight and it def does not confine itself to grieving that loss in the ring. You have to know when to step back as you're responsible for the company you keep too. AJ has now prior to this literally put the Company on his shoulders with the franchise deal and looking at it now, it may very well be the worst thing for him given where his head actually is. Man needs a complete reset imo..rebuild himself first..dazn and Eddie be damned.

[palmerq]

I don't really think Joshua's previous losses have affected him that much, sure he's probably a bit less aggressive but he gave a super skilled boxer two close fights, the two fights weren't one sided best downs and Joshua won rounds unfortunately for him usyk is just more talented (in my opinion) and the better boxer.

I'd be worried about Joshua's mental state though if I was his manager, looks like he struggles when he's not the centre of attention. Usyk is the defending champion and just beat Joshua again, why is Joshua raising his arm and dragging him on a Parade around the ring.. it'd make more sense if Joshua had just lost the belts...weird behaviour all round.

Joshua is still going to beat a lot of the heavyweights out there he just needs to avoid usyk for a while or forever...

[Dark Lord Al]

So cue the hypotheticals...Usyk v Holyfield for all time cruiser to heavy stakes . I got Holy.

Who would you fancy between Usyk and Holyfield? Now that would be a fight.

Can't get over how badly Joshua had him hurt for a second to that body. Usyk literally held his left side and winced. He does camouflage very intelligently. I thought AJ had him!

Here goes AJ making it his moment again, fuck was that

The Brits HATE their own. That is what that was about. Look at the clowns on here.

Mate he lost convincingly and strips the man's National colors off his back and demands a mic to wobble on about grievance? To the victor and such is all I'm saying

it was oleksandr's moment to shine & aj took a dump all over it. he even threw the belts outside the ring. embarrassing

Finally caught that earlier part. Looked like he was motioning them at someone and just flipped them out. Then just sulked out mad and mixed until they turned him around at exit. Really strange.

It is good to hear the real AJ, and the tantrum was part of the grieving of the loss. He acted like a spoilt child but can now move on rebuilding his career on Dazn and their ppv.

The real AJ ? you pick the bits u like to hear ?

So do you my friend.

It is two questions.

[Dark Lord Al]

I did find it funny when Fury said it was the worst HW title fight in years.
I thought it was way better than Fury's yawn fest with Wlad.
Boxers have short memories.

[Master]

So cue the hypotheticals...Usyk v Holyfield for all time cruiser to heavy stakes . I got Holy.

Who would you fancy between Usyk and Holyfield? Now that would be a fight.

Can't get over how badly Joshua had him hurt for a second to that body. Usyk literally held his left side and winced. He does camouflage very intelligently. I thought AJ had him!

Here goes AJ making it his moment again, fuck was that

The Brits HATE their own. That is what that was about. Look at the clowns on here.

Mate he lost convincingly and strips the man's National colors off his back and demands a mic to wobble on about grievance? To the victor and such is all I'm saying

it was oleksandr's moment to shine & aj took a dump all over it. he even threw the belts outside the ring. embarrassing

Finally caught that earlier part. Looked like he was motioning them at someone and just flipped them out. Then just sulked out mad and mixed until they turned him around at exit. Really strange.

It is good to hear the real AJ, and the tantrum was part of the grieving of the loss. He acted like a spoilt child but can now move on rebuilding his career on Dazn and their ppv.

The real AJ ? you pick the bits u like to hear ?

So do you my friend.

It is two questions.

It is one question and one comment from you.

[NoSavingByTheBell]

So cue the hypotheticals...Usyk v Holyfield for all time cruiser to heavy stakes . I got Holy.

Who would you fancy between Usyk and Holyfield? Now that would be a fight.

Can't get over how badly Joshua had him hurt for a second to that body. Usyk literally held his left side and winced. He does camouflage very intelligently. I thought AJ had him!

Here goes AJ making it his moment again, fuck was that

The Brits HATE their own. That is what that was about. Look at the clowns on here.

Mate he lost convincingly and strips the man's National colors off his back and demands a mic to wobble on about grievance? To the victor and such is all I'm saying

it was oleksandr's moment to shine & aj took a dump all over it. he even threw the belts outside the ring. embarrassing

Finally caught that earlier part. Looked like he was motioning them at someone and just flipped them out. Then just sulked out mad and mixed until they turned him around at exit. Really strange.

It is good to hear the real AJ, and the tantrum was part of the grieving of the loss. He acted like a spoilt child but can now move on rebuilding his career on Dazn and their ppv.

The real AJ ? you pick the bits u like to hear ?

So do you my friend.

It is two questions.

It is one question and one comment from you.

It is 4 questions, 3 rebuttals, 2 retorts and one comment for the 5th time out of 6.

[NoSavingByTheBell]

Small wobble on Usyk after lft hook and AJ just watches his work?!

Was meaning to comment on this. THIS comment here sums up AJ in a nutshell.

[Memphis]

A better performance from Joshua. He made adjustments, had a different plan and it was working for nine rounds. Forget the 'you're winning every round' bollocks from Joshua's corner early on, he wasn't, but he was in the fight and probably where he wanted to be going into the tenth. He got his instructions to turn the heat up in the ninth and responded by putting it on Usyk for a sustained period. At that point I thought he was going to go on and win the fight. He'd sussed out that up close, Usyk doesn't really throw back. A few well timed sustained attacks per round at that point might have been enough to get the job done.

Usyk showed his class at that point. Fully ware of what was going on and how Joshua was playing it he took the play back immediately with his own high energy attack in the tenth that essentially pulled the rug from under Joshua and his best laid plans and won the fight at that point. He cantered away with it in the final two rounds. Brilliant stuff.

It's hard to be too critical of what Joshua did (during the actual fight). It was in the balance after nine rounds, he fought well and fought differently. But to suggest he did something wrong detracts from just how brilliant and resilient Usyk is. Whilst it's a bitter pill to swallow, he got pipped at the post by the 2/3 P4P finest boxer on the planet.

It'll be interesting to see where both go from here. Obviously there's only really one fight for Usyk, but he'll have obligations coming his way. Joshua is still one of the four best heavyweights out there and even whilst he's in this mental limbo I'd still fancy him to beat all but the other three quite strongly. How he goes about it is another matter.

[Memphis]

Just to add. The only real criticism I have of Joshua is how passive he was in the tenth. Yes Usyk came out firing. But that had to have been expected and very much part of plan A. Joshua allowed it to happen when the correct response was to do exactly what Usyk did and try to win the fight there and then by returning heavier fire. That was the time to impose himself physically. Instead he allowed round ten to become round thirteen and the game was up.