Boxing

[MUFC]

7 hours ago, JoshBRFC said:

What a video. So hyped for Saturday… can not wait.

How many of you are watching it?

[JoshBRFC+]

1 hour ago, MUFC said:

How many of you are watching it?

Just 3 of us going down. 

[JoshBRFC+]

 

[JoshBRFC+]

If anyone wants a ticket for AJ-Usyk at Tottenham Stadium I’ve got one. My mate had to get off the train earlier and go home. I won’t charge much. If you want it and I’m not online hit me up on Facebook Josh Sharples

[Dave]

On 25/09/2021 at 14:18, JoshBRFC said:

If anyone wants a ticket for AJ-Usyk at Tottenham Stadium I’ve got one. My mate had to get off the train earlier and go home. I won’t charge much. If you want it and I’m not online hit me up on Facebook Josh Sharples

Why did I have a kid.

[Dave]

Well deserved victory that.

[Lucas]

Joshua was doomed the minute he chose to fight at Tottenham.

Very Spursy.

Edited September 25, 2021 by Lucas

[MUFC]

In the first 6 rounds AJ never threw a big right hand once. He's been like this since his defeat to Ruiz. Did his weight loss affect him?

[LFCMike]

Not sure what the odds with the bookies were but there seemed to be a lot of writing off of Usyk pre fight. He's special.

[CaaC (John)+]

I think Josh has stagnated now, not as good as he was and maybe it's because he is only fighting twice a year and some of his opponents are just not as good as they were in years gone by.

I have said before the last great heavyweight was Lennox Lewis and great heavyweights are not around nowadays, Josh could have been up there with the greats if he had been managed properly, like maybe 3/4 fighta a year but even then the heavyweight division has stagnated nowadays.

Ali, Liston, Smoking Joe Frazier, Larry Holmes, a young Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis etc, the good old days but not anymore, sad really, once upon a time the Americans ruled the roost with heavyweights they produced, black & beautiful, powerful to watch, I miss those days.

[MUFC]

3 hours ago, CaaC (John) said:

I think Josh has stagnated now, not as good as he was and maybe it's because he is only fighting twice a year and some of his opponents are just not as good as they were in years gone by.

I have said before the last great heavyweight was Lennox Lewis and great heavyweights are not around nowadays, Josh could have been up there with the greats if he had been managed properly, like maybe 3/4 fighta a year but even then the heavyweight division has stagnated nowadays.

Ali, Liston, Smoking Joe Frazier, Larry Holmes, a young Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis etc, the good old days but not anymore, sad really, once upon a time the Americans ruled the roost with heavyweights they produced, black & beautiful, powerful to watch, I miss those days.

Any pics?

[Michael]

I went to watch this fight in Tottenham and what a fight it was. Usyk outclassed Joshua for most of the match. They said AJ was too big for him before the fight, but Usyk taught Joshua a boxing lesson or two as he displayed his technical class. 

Joshua had the weight advantage, the reach advantage and he also had more than 60,000 fans cheering him on in the stadium, but Usyk just seemed to dominate him from the start. Contrary to what many pundits predicted would happen, Usyk was the aggressor. He was pushing Joshua on the back foot for prolonged periods of the fight. 

Usyk won the first few rounds by most accounts as he showed off his speed and punching accuracy. Joshua had his best spell during the middle rounds of the fight, specifically rounds 5 and 6, where he caught Usyk with some powerful punches. But for me it highlighted how Usyk could take Joshua's powerful hits and not go down or be affected by them in any serious way. So not only is Usyk a technically superb boxer, he has in my opinion also shown that he can take hits from the best heavyweights in the business and not go down.

From round 7 onwards, Usyk just showed his dominance, where he rocked Joshua on several occasions with some great shots. In the final round he also had a flurry of great hits and a grandstand finish to confirm his dominance in the fight. 

What an achievement it is for Usyk. He cleaned up the Cruiserweight division by winning all the major belts in that division. Now in only his 3rd Heavyweight fight, he has won 4 heavyweight title belts. I don't think that there was much that Joshua could do differently. Usyk was simply too quick for him and technically superior. If there is a rematch, which is more than likely to happen, my money is on Usyk. Unless Joshua gets a lucky punch, I see Usyk beating him all the way once again.

Usyk would beat Wilder as well in my opinion, unless as with Joshua, Wilder connects accurately with one of his extremely powerful punches. But for all intents and purposes, Usyk would outclass Wilder as well given a potential matchup between the pair.

The only heavyweight boxer who I see Usyk having some trouble with is Tyson Fury. Fury can box at a high level as well, perhaps not on the level of Usyk, but he is a much bigger man. Fury would try and take full advantage of his reach advantage. Moreover, as he is an excellent boxer, he could very likely find success by boxing intelligently and utilising that reach advantage. Still Usyk has shown how quick he is and his own technical prowess could potentially outdo Fury, but it would be an intriguing fight as both boxers are of an elite standard.

But real credit should go to Usyk, who came to Joshua's own backyard and quite frankly schooled him in the art of boxing. I paid a relatively significant amount of money to watch the fight yesterday, but I can confidently say that it was worth every pound spent. Usyk gave a beautiful performance and his technical skills are a joy to watch.

It's also interesting to note that most boxers were writing Usyk off before the fight, claiming AJ's size and power would finish the job against Usyk. But a couple of boxers who actually have been in the ring with Usyk, were giving a very different story. Both Tony Bellew and Dave Allen were unequivocal in how highly they rated the world class Usyk. Indeed Usyk proved them right with his masterclass performance against Joshua last night.

Usyk is now undefeated in 19 professional fights, which is an incredible feat to achieve within the heavyweight and cruiserweight divisions and it is even more impressive given some of the great fighters he has defeated.

 

 

Edited September 26, 2021 by Michael

[Michael]

4 hours ago, CaaC (John) said:

I think Josh has stagnated now, not as good as he was and maybe it's because he is only fighting twice a year and some of his opponents are just not as good as they were in years gone by.

I have said before the last great heavyweight was Lennox Lewis and great heavyweights are not around nowadays, Josh could have been up there with the greats if he had been managed properly, like maybe 3/4 fighta a year but even then the heavyweight division has stagnated nowadays.

Ali, Liston, Smoking Joe Frazier, Larry Holmes, a young Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis etc, the good old days but not anymore, sad really, once upon a time the Americans ruled the roost with heavyweights they produced, black & beautiful, powerful to watch, I miss those days.

I think you should be giving Alexander Usyk real credit for his masterclass performance, rather than detracting from Joshua, who has proven what a top boxer he is. But he had no answers for the technically world class Usyk, who was aggressive from the off. Surely Usyk has shut any doubters up after that world class performance. He was simply too quick and too technically superior to Joshua.

As for Lennox Lewis, wasn't it the same Lennox Lewis who lost to the likes of a guy called Hasim Rahman as well as Oliver McCall. Lewis was losing by most accounts to Vitali Klitschko as well, even the judges had Klitschko leading 58-56 before the fight was prematurely stopped because of a severe cut above Klitschko's eye, which resulted in Lewis being awarded the win via a TKO. Furthermore, his win over Mike Tyson was at a time when Tyson was past his best in my view. Not that long after Tyson's loss to Lewis, Tyson also lost to the likes of Danny Williams, which says a lot to me in terms of him being a shadow of his former self at that stage.

Sure Lewis was a superb boxer, but if he came up against the likes of Joshua, it would be a 50/50 fight. Joshua has done demolition jobs on the likes of top boxers such as Dillian Whyte, Kevin Johnson, Wladimir Klitschko, Takam,  Povetkin and Kubrat Pulev. While he outclassed Joseph Parker and Andy Ruiz on points to seal impressive wins against them. 

Joshua was coming off two very impressive wins against Andy Ruiz and Kubrat Pulev before the Usyk fight. The fact that Joshua couldn't do much against the superior Ukrainian, says more about Usyk's class, rather than Joshua not having the ability to fight at an elite standard in my opinion.

I think the current heavyweight division is doing great. Fury, Joshua, Wilder and now Usyk, would probably all defeat any of the heavyweights of the last 40 years(with the exception of Mike Tyson perhaps). 

[CaaC (John)+]

3 minutes ago, Michael said:

I think the current heavyweight division is doing great. Fury, Joshua, Wilder and now Usyk, would probably all defeat any of the heavyweights of the last 40 years(with the exception of Mike Tyson perhaps). 

Everybody has opinions like yourself but I disagree with what you said above that Fury, Josh, Wilder & Usyk would not have stood a chance against the likes of Ali, Holmes, Smoking Joe Frazier and Tyson to name a few, the latter mentioned by me would have eaten them for breakfast and spat out the bones, my opinion only and others may differ, 

[Michael]

27 minutes ago, CaaC (John) said:

Everybody has opinions like yourself but I disagree with what you said above that Fury, Josh, Wilder & Usyk would not have stood a chance against the likes of Ali, Holmes, Smoking Joe Frazier and Tyson to name a few, the latter mentioned by me would have eaten them for breakfast and spat out the bones, my opinion only and others may differ, 

I specifically said the last 40 years and I did say with the exception of a peak Mike Tyson in the last 40 years. Ali and Frazier in the 60's and 70's were clearly elite boxers and the best of the best. Even though they fought way before my time, I can appreciate the quality they had from viewing their fights online. As for Tyson, he was something else in the 80's and 90's. So I don't think we do disagree that much. 

But the current elite boxers are no worse than the likes of Lennox Lewis and although I agree that a peak Iron Mike was something else, I don't think he'd find fights against the current top 4 heavyweights a walk in the park. Tyson Fury and Usyk in particular could have posed him a few headaches with their quick movement and technical skills. Fury's size plus skill and Usyk's speed would have posed Iron Mike a few dilemma's. Although I do agree that if he managed to corner either of them, it would probably be goodnight to them. 

But the truth is that we will obviously never know the outcomes of such matchups as Iron Mike was of a different generation. However, the point is that the current elite boxers are superb in their own right. Did Iron Mike for example have the punching power that Wilder has? Did he have the size/reach advantage of Fury or even Fury's great footwork? Did he have Usyk's speed and technical skills? So although I'd agree that peak Iron Mike would have been the favourite if he ever hypothetically came up against the current crop of top boxers, I don't think the outcome of the fights would have been as simple as you suggest.

Edited September 26, 2021 by Michael

[Michael]

On the domestic front, we are blessed to have world class boxers such as Fury and Joshua, who give us great boxing displays. Even the likes of Whyte and Chisora bring quality to the table. All 4 are a million times better than the the crap we had to watch and endure about 15 years ago, when the likes of Fraudley Harrison and Sprott were fighting each other. That was the best that the UK heavyweight division had to offer back then. 

Edited September 26, 2021 by Michael

[MUFC]

2 hours ago, Michael said:

I went to watch this fight in Tottenham and what a fight it was. Usyk outclassed Joshua for most of the match. They said AJ was too big for him before the fight, but Usyk taught Joshua a boxing lesson or two as he displayed his technical class. 

Joshua had the weight advantage, the reach advantage and he also had more than 60,000 fans cheering him on in the stadium, but Usyk just seemed to dominate him from the start. Contrary to what many pundits predicted would happen, Usyk was the aggressor. He was pushing Joshua on the back foot for prolonged periods of the fight. 

Usyk won the first few rounds by most accounts as he showed off his speed and punching accuracy. Joshua had his best spell during the middle rounds of the fight, specifically rounds 5 and 6, where he caught Usyk with some powerful punches. But for me it highlighted how Usyk could take Joshua's powerful hits and not go down or be affected by them in any serious way. So not only is Usyk a technically superb boxer, he has in my opinion also shown that he can take hits from the best heavyweights in the business and not go down.

From round 7 onwards, Usyk just showed his dominance, where he rocked Joshua on several occasions with some great shots. In the final round he also had a flurry of great hits and a grandstand finish to confirm his dominance in the fight. 

What an achievement it is for Usyk. He cleaned up the Cruiserweight division by winning all the major belts in that division. Now in only his 3rd Heavyweight fight, he has won 4 heavyweight title belts. I don't think that there was much that Joshua could do differently. Usyk was simply too quick for him and technically superior. If there is a rematch, which is more than likely to happen, my money is on Usyk. Unless Joshua gets a lucky punch, I see Usyk beating him all the way once again.

Usyk would beat Wilder as well in my opinion, unless as with Joshua, Wilder connects accurately with one of his extremely powerful punches. But for all intents and purposes, Usyk would outclass Wilder as well given a potential matchup between the pair.

The only heavyweight boxer who I see Usyk having some trouble with is Tyson Fury. Fury can box at a high level as well, perhaps not on the level of Usyk, but he is a much bigger man. Fury would try and take full advantage of his reach advantage. Moreover, as he is an excellent boxer, he could very likely find success by boxing intelligently and utilising that reach advantage. Still Usyk has shown how quick he is and his own technical prowess could potentially outdo Fury, but it would be an intriguing fight as both boxers are of an elite standard.

But real credit should go to Usyk, who came to Joshua's own backyard and quite frankly schooled him in the art of boxing. I paid a relatively significant amount of money to watch the fight yesterday, but I can confidently say that it was worth every pound spent. Usyk gave a beautiful performance and his technical skills are a joy to watch.

It's also interesting to note that most boxers were writing Usyk off before the fight, claiming AJ's size and power would finish the job against Usyk. But a couple of boxers who actually have been in the ring with Usyk, were giving a very different story. Both Tony Bellew and Dave Allen were unequivocal in how highly they rated the world class Usyk. Indeed Usyk proved them right with his masterclass performance against Joshua last night.

Usyk is now undefeated in 19 professional fights, which is an incredible feat to achieve within the heavyweight and cruiserweight divisions and it is even more impressive given some of the great fighters he has defeated.

 

 

Good post mate. But regarding your point about Usyk being caught by powerful punches. I felt that Joshua never really landed a right hand flush with real power all night. I don't understand how in the first 6 rounds he never really used the big right hand. When he did use his right hand to throw bombs, they looked like jab style power shots. No conviction in the big right.

Do you think his defeat to Ruiz has affected him? Made him more cautious? 

[Michael]

17 hours ago, MUFC said:

Good post mate. But regarding your point about Usyk being caught by powerful punches. I felt that Joshua never really landed a right hand flush with real power all night. I don't understand how in the first 6 rounds he never really used the big right hand. When he did use his right hand to throw bombs, they looked like jab style power shots. No conviction in the big right.

Do you think his defeat to Ruiz has affected him? Made him more cautious? 

Usyk was too quick for Joshua to land any huge swinging punches, but Joshua did catch Usyk a couple of times with some powerful hits. Every time Joshua swung with an attempted big punch, he missed and Usyk countered. However, as I said, Joshua did catch Usyk with some strong punches(not saying they were his most powerful punches) and Usyk took the hits well. 

You ask about Joshua not using his big right hand punches enough in the early rounds of the fight. The thing is it was too much of a risk for him to swing often with a huge right hand punch, because Usyk dodged these attempts as we saw in the latter rounds of the fight. Not only did he dodge them, but he countered superbly. 

This is one of the reasons why I think that Usyk will beat Joshua 9 times out of 10. Some people have said that Joshua should have essentially brawled more in his fight against Usyk, instead of boxing. But if he swung more often than he did, he would have also exposed himself more often and would in theory get counter punched more often. Because we saw how quick Usyk is and how excellent he is at avoiding big punches. Sure, in a brawl style boxing match, there is the odd chance that Joshua would catch Usyk flush with a huge swinging punch, which would likely do serious damage, but I just think that Usyk is just too quick for those types of shots to land often. 

So if Joshua mainly approaches Usyk with a boxing mindset and approach, he gets outclassed by Usyk as we witnessed. If he decides to go for a brawl against Usyk, he will more than likely get hit more often by Usyk's counters. So either way, I think Usyk wins more often than not.

I think that Joshua's first fight against Ruiz was very strange. Joshua had his guard down on several occasions and he seemed to tire towards the end as well. The second fight against Ruiz saw Joshua outclass him by boxing intelligently and utilising his jab. It could be that the loss to Ruiz has made him more cautious, but as I mentioned previously, I just think that Joshua's approach to the fight is thought out before the fight. If Ruiz is able to counter successfully against Joshua's big swinging shots, then the more quick and speedy Usyk would likely find even more success against AJ.

Edited September 27, 2021 by Michael

[Happy Blue]

I've emailed Joshua, told him to give his head a wobble for trying to out box a lb for lb great and to get in touch if he wants to win the rematch. his game plan was all wrong, who ever told him to try out box Usyk should be fired!

[Michael]

Usyk apparently wants the rematch to be in Ukraine, most likely Kyiv. That should be interesting. 

[Happy Blue]

7 hours ago, Michael said:

Usyk apparently wants the rematch to be in Ukraine, most likely Kyiv. That should be interesting. 

Won't happen, they will go where it does the most money

[MUFC]

20 hours ago, Michael said:

Usyk was too quick for Joshua to land any huge swinging punches, but Joshua did catch Usyk a couple of times with some powerful hits. Every time Joshua swung with an attempted big punch, he missed and Usyk countered. However, as I said, Joshua did catch Usyk with some strong punches(not saying they were his most powerful punches) and Usyk took the hits well. 

You ask about Joshua not using his big right hand punches enough in the early rounds of the fight. The thing is it was too much of a risk for him to swing often with a huge right hand punch, because Usyk dodged these attempts as we saw in the latter rounds of the fight. Not only did he dodge them, but he countered superbly. 

This is one of the reasons why I think that Usyk will beat Joshua 9 times out of 10. Some people have said that Joshua should have essentially brawled more in his fight against Usyk, instead of boxing. But if he swung more often than he did, he would have also exposed himself more often and would in theory get counter punched more often. Because we saw how quick Usyk is and how excellent he is at avoiding big punches. Sure, in a brawl style boxing match, there is the odd chance that Joshua would catch Usyk flush with a huge swinging punch, which would likely do serious damage, but I just think that Usyk is just too quick for those types of shots to land often. 

So if Joshua mainly approaches Usyk with a boxing mindset and approach, he gets outclassed by Usyk as we witnessed. If he decides to go for a brawl against Usyk, he will more than likely get hit more often by Usyk's counters. So either way, I think Usyk wins more often than not.

I think that Joshua's first fight against Ruiz was very strange. Joshua had his guard down on several occasions and he seemed to tire towards the end as well. The second fight against Ruiz saw Joshua outclass him by boxing intelligently and utilising his jab. It could be that the loss to Ruiz has made him more cautious, but as I mentioned previously, I just think that Joshua's approach to the fight is thought out before the fight. If Ruiz is able to counter successfully against Joshua's big swinging shots, then the more quick and speedy Usyk would likely find even more success against AJ.

Boxing him was a huge mistake, it was easier against Ruiz fight 2 as he wasn't the most mobile and had put a few more stones on. I still feel Joshua could have taken a punt or 2 early on with some big shots. Even if he missed once or twice, he was still getting tagged anyway but missing via a big swing does leave you open. 

I feel that one reason  Joshua couldn't get close or close the gap in order to threw some big shots is because he's more on the flat footed side and isn't the most mobile. I also felt he was a tad predictable vs Usky in how he came foreword. The clever skilled fighters come in with good head movement and weave or come in at certain angles. Joshua was predicatble, he moved foreword slowly in a straight line opposed to using angles. 

They used a smaller ring which I thought would have favored Joshua if he used the right tactics. Did you see the Fury video pre-fight? Everyone is saying he was right lol.

 

[MUFC]

On 26/09/2021 at 17:17, Michael said:

I went to watch this fight in Tottenham and what a fight it was. Usyk outclassed Joshua for most of the match. They said AJ was too big for him before the fight, but Usyk taught Joshua a boxing lesson or two as he displayed his technical class. 

Joshua had the weight advantage, the reach advantage and he also had more than 60,000 fans cheering him on in the stadium, but Usyk just seemed to dominate him from the start. Contrary to what many pundits predicted would happen, Usyk was the aggressor. He was pushing Joshua on the back foot for prolonged periods of the fight. 

Usyk won the first few rounds by most accounts as he showed off his speed and punching accuracy. Joshua had his best spell during the middle rounds of the fight, specifically rounds 5 and 6, where he caught Usyk with some powerful punches. But for me it highlighted how Usyk could take Joshua's powerful hits and not go down or be affected by them in any serious way. So not only is Usyk a technically superb boxer, he has in my opinion also shown that he can take hits from the best heavyweights in the business and not go down.

From round 7 onwards, Usyk just showed his dominance, where he rocked Joshua on several occasions with some great shots. In the final round he also had a flurry of great hits and a grandstand finish to confirm his dominance in the fight. 

What an achievement it is for Usyk. He cleaned up the Cruiserweight division by winning all the major belts in that division. Now in only his 3rd Heavyweight fight, he has won 4 heavyweight title belts. I don't think that there was much that Joshua could do differently. Usyk was simply too quick for him and technically superior. If there is a rematch, which is more than likely to happen, my money is on Usyk. Unless Joshua gets a lucky punch, I see Usyk beating him all the way once again.

Usyk would beat Wilder as well in my opinion, unless as with Joshua, Wilder connects accurately with one of his extremely powerful punches. But for all intents and purposes, Usyk would outclass Wilder as well given a potential matchup between the pair.

The only heavyweight boxer who I see Usyk having some trouble with is Tyson Fury. Fury can box at a high level as well, perhaps not on the level of Usyk, but he is a much bigger man. Fury would try and take full advantage of his reach advantage. Moreover, as he is an excellent boxer, he could very likely find success by boxing intelligently and utilising that reach advantage. Still Usyk has shown how quick he is and his own technical prowess could potentially outdo Fury, but it would be an intriguing fight as both boxers are of an elite standard.

But real credit should go to Usyk, who came to Joshua's own backyard and quite frankly schooled him in the art of boxing. I paid a relatively significant amount of money to watch the fight yesterday, but I can confidently say that it was worth every pound spent. Usyk gave a beautiful performance and his technical skills are a joy to watch.

It's also interesting to note that most boxers were writing Usyk off before the fight, claiming AJ's size and power would finish the job against Usyk. But a couple of boxers who actually have been in the ring with Usyk, were giving a very different story. Both Tony Bellew and Dave Allen were unequivocal in how highly they rated the world class Usyk. Indeed Usyk proved them right with his masterclass performance against Joshua last night.

Usyk is now undefeated in 19 professional fights, which is an incredible feat to achieve within the heavyweight and cruiserweight divisions and it is even more impressive given some of the great fighters he has defeated.

 

 

Seen as you were there, how clearly could you see Joshua? Is it body as good in the flesh as it is on TV? Could you see the cut in his arms? when he raised his arms, how visible were his abs? 

[MUFC]

10 minutes ago, Happy Blue said:

Won't happen, they will go where it does the most money

KArachi?

[Happy Blue]

29 minutes ago, MUFC said:

KArachi?

I don't see it being in Pakistan tbh