Anthony Joshua

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So, after Saturdays fight what does everybody think now?

For me, its been pretty hard assessing the fight and his performance. He answered a few questions, but now there's a few more to be answered in my opinion.

After the first few rounds I was questioning his stamina. He seemed to start plodding and looked like his cardio was poor to me. Obviiusly he'd never gone beyond 3 rounds so it was new territory for him and the fight started fast so it was an energy sapper. He also took that big left in the second which probably took something away from his legs for a while. Hopefully going 7 rounds will give him much needed experience in that regard.

He started quickly and I thought he was going to dispose of Dillian inside the first round but the guy can take a punch so fair play. The fact Josh went on to get a KO in the style he did in round 7 shows he can carry his power through the rounds which is good.

For me though, he needs to brush up on a few fundamentals and push forward from this fight now. I'd like to see him establish a powerful jab and work off that. He seems too eager to throw the big shots all the time and comes in straight lines, he looked very flat footed to me. I'd like to see a lot more head movement, boxing his way in and be on his toes a bit more. He knows he's got one punch knockout power, forget that now and go to work on movement and cardio between now and his next fight which I'm 90% certain will be a British title defence against Del boy.

He showed he can take a punch, regroup and retake control of the fight. However, I do feel against someone with better boxing skills and a killer instinct, ala David Haye, he could end up in serious trouble. Understandably he's still a novice so this is the time to make mistakes and learn from them.

For me, the next few fights should be the real learning curves now. His first 14 were non contest and other than becoming comfortable in the professional ring what did he actually learn. Not much I suspect.

I think he can be a real force in the division in the coming years but I don't think world titles are a nailed on certainty. I would seriously focus on how to control fights, set the pace, establish a strong jab and work on his overall movement, the lack of head movement was particularly worrying at times.

He knows he's got the power to take people out when he lands clean so its time to stop rushing for the KO and start learning how to boss the fight with something else other than sheer power because he won't be able to clear everybody out so easily from this point forward which was evident on Saturday

Fat Dan just said on Twitter that the Joshua-Whyte PPV had 400k buys.
Sky thought 200k would be a good performance.

If those are accurate, and I expect they are, don't think we'll see Joshua on normal Sky Sports again.

They've created a cash generating monster.

How something like Joshua-Chisora would sell is the big question I guess...

DuransHorse wrote:OK.  My take is he was pushing Haye and as a Haye fan, that for once got a bet correct, I was concerned Chis was starting to have his moments when the KO came. I banked on Haye winning by KO in the first half because I felt Chisora would have the better engine going into the latter rounds.

Okey doke, fair enough. Though Haye-Chis is another thing we disagree on.....Chis wasn't in the fight apart from when Haye's old stamina issues came out to play again, worsened due to lay off. Chis never actually looked a threat and Haye never looked in danger.

No surprise Joshua's first time as a solo act was a rousing success. If you asked Hearn, Arum, Don King etc to draw the most marketable fighter possible free hand, they'd all to man draw an AJ rough sketch

A ko like Whyte suffered could have a lasting effect on his punch resistance. Chin might well be cracked for good so I wouldn't put it as one of his biggest attributes as we don't know yet. He used to have a very good chin though.

Strikingly similar to Del boy. His chin hasn't looked the same since the Haye KO and he was hurt by fighters since then that he'd have laughed at before hand.

I stand by my thoughts that Joshua needs to be carefully managed from here on in. Should beat Helenius although anyone that can punch back will be a danger. There's not many out there on that next level up so matchmaking is going to be difficult.

The amount of hype around Joshua and the amount of people that are calling him the second coming is affecting my ability to warm to the guy. That tongue out and smirk is annoying too. I was willing Whyte to give a heavy counter when he did it in the second round. Good boxer, big hitter and good for the division but cut out the cocky nonsense.

I think that's his most endearing trait, he's got a real vicous streak and wants to knock everyone out, not sure what's not to like.

Hammersmith harrier wrote:I think that's his most endearing trait, he's got a real vicous streak and wants to knock everyone out, not sure what's not to like.

Totally agree, it's his spite I like the most.

That was the attribute I was referring to, toppy. Haye was better in every department except stamina (or engine as I called it) and chin and whilst Haye was connecting regularly and winning the rounds Chisora kept walking forward making him work. My theory was if Haye didn't knock him out he would be in trouble so I was concerned.

Durans Horse, I think Chisora was hoping David would blow late rounds if he kept pressure on - like against Thompson. Don't forget he had just gone 12 with Vitali and most thought he would get knocked out but Derek is on the Mccall continuum for chins. Chisora was very competitive but Haye blocked most of his punches and we all know what happened in the 5th.

Regards Joshua, I think both were up for a tear up rather than the sweet science, so on some ways it doesn't show either boxers development v much. This was about two stags who wanted to knock lumps out of each other but Joshua remembered the "boxing" in the end which led to the close

I'd like to see Whyte v Chisora next and Joshua V Hellinus...

AZZJ44 wrote:

I stand by my thoughts that Joshua needs to be carefully managed from here on in. Should beat Helenius although anyone that can punch back will be a danger. There's not many out there on that next level up so matchmaking is going to be difficult.

The amount of hype around Joshua and the amount of people that are calling him the second coming is affecting my ability to warm to the guy. That tongue out and smirk is annoying too. I was willing Whyte to give a heavy counter when he did it in the second round. Good boxer, big hitter and good for the division but cut out the cocky nonsense.  

I agree, when he was hit with that hook, its not like he got hurt and wanted to hold and take a breather, he was unsteady on his feet had to run for cover and for the rest of the round did not fully recover, in fact the 3rd round he still looked a little buzzed and very worried about getting clipped again. And lets not forget all this after Whyte was also very hurt in the first round as well.

armchairwarrior wrote:I'd like to see Whyte v Chisora next and Joshua V Hellinus...

Totally agree.

I think Chisora v Whyte would be a good test for where Whyte is. Let's not write him off - he's still on a learning curve himself. Dereck will fancy it so he'll throw the sink at him which should make for a good decent battle - surely a better fight than the perception of simply being "fed" to Joshua. Us fans surely want to see more even match ups at any level whether world, European or domestic that are realistic and make for good fights "on their own terms"