News Anthony Joshua vs Deontay Wilder agreed to take place in Saudi Arabia, March 9

[Kovalev's "Man Bag"]

I'm sure it would be a fun fight. You're right it probably still wouldn't disappoint from an entertainment, excitement aspect.

However, even I, as a Wilder fan am growing tired of him losing only to stay in title contention or getting a defacto title eliminator. Never fighting the guys like Parker, Whyte, Ruiz, Chisora, & AJ. Then when he does, he got totally outclassed.

Now that crop of contenders has aged out and has been replaced by Usyk, Joyce, Zhang, Hrgovic, & Sanchez.

So many younger or newer guys at HW who have had big wins against eachother who deserve a crack at a surging former champ like AJ .
Especially since we all know Fury is going to hold the division hostage.
I'm starting to just not want to reward inactivity & a weaker resume.

I hear you. Before the fight I saw people around here picking Parker confidently. Parker has always had the style to beat Wilder but actually doing it, executing in there, is another matter entirely. I didn't think he'd at all be able to manage it. He can box but he's not all that good, has been stopped before, and hasn't impressed me in years. Fury helped him prep for Wilder though, and shared a lot of valuable info with him, so that appears to have paid dividends.

 

[WklySportsMemes]

I hear you. Before the fight I saw people around here picking Parker confidently. Parker has always had the style to beat Wilder but actually doing it, executing in there, is another matter entirely. I didn't think he'd at all be able to manage it. He can box but he's not all that good, has been stopped before, and hasn't impressed me in years. Fury helped him prep for Wilder though, and shared a lot of valuable info with him, so that appears to have paid dividends.

Yeah thats kind of my disappointment with it too. Here is a guy in Parker who got stopped by Joyce recently...Joyce is a guy who recently got brutally stopped by Zhang twice. Zhang, a guy who many had beating Hrgovic, but ultimately lost.
All that kind of tells me the landscape has changed and these younger contenders are active & mixing it up,but being avoided due to high risk no reward.

 

[defjaam]

Joshua switching coaches once again is a red flag to me, especially picking Ben Davison as his new head coach.

Davison is a sharp boxing mind, but as a coach his approach is very strategical, he says stuff like "beating the clock", basically trying to make it a chess match... When he was Fury's coach, he couldn't imagine Fury getting rough with Deontay Wilder... which SugarHill Steward proved to be wrong in the rematch.

It's just not a good idea for Joshua to have a chess type of boxing match with Otto Wallin, so I'm going with Wallin by decision here.

I couldn't have been more wrong here. Joshua was apparently somewhat freed from his mental block and able to box out of his skin again.
What does that mean for future opponents like Hrgovic, Zhang, Dubois, possibly Fury?

I don't know... AJ was more pot-shotting than boxing. His best days are behind him, either way.

 

[Kovalev's "Man Bag"]

I couldn't have been more wrong here. Joshua was apparently somewhat freed from his mental block and able to box out of skin again.
What does that mean for future opponents like Hrgovic, Zhang, Dubois, possibly Fury? I don't know...

I was completely wrong about Parker. Other than that I thought the outcomes were quite predictable across the board.

 

[Juzie]

I couldn't have been more wrong here. Joshua was apparently somewhat freed from his mental block and able to box out of skin again.
What does that mean for future opponents like Hrgovic, Zhang, Dubois, possibly Fury?

I don't know... AJ was more pot-shotting than boxing. His best days are behind him, either way.

Boxing is a tough sport especially at heavyweight. When you actually challenge yourself its very easy to get caught and lose. AJ is way more talented boxer than Fury he just has consistently challenged himself and been saved by the ref/judges less. (Fury should have lost to Wallin, Wilder 1 and Ngannou).

If Fury ever grows the balls to get in there with Usyk he's going to cop a bigger beatdown than AJ did believe me on that.

As for Wilder im not sure how so many people overlooked Parker on that one.....Wilder's only chance was always just to catch him with a big shot but Parker is not old, slow and out of shape like Ortiz was at the time. If he didn't catch him and most likely he wasn't going too...everyone should have very much expected Parker to have cruised to an easy decision win.

Fury has people convinced that AJ is just a body builder and that he's the better boxer but what I see is AJ actually outboxing people and Tyson getting caught by literally everyone and using size to hug and wear people down and outpoint them in the end.

 

[Blazeblack]

So much for that idea.

 

[Hagler]

You were right. Parker did it and he was a big underdog. We waited nearly 8 years for Wilder vs AJ and now it's dead. Sad.

This is boxing in a nutshell.

 

[Boxiana]

The way Wilder was talking after the fight it doesn’t seem like he’s ever fighting again. Another missed opportunity for boxing, but time to move on.

 

[BoxingMMA]

If it happens I’d see it. If anything, If wilder beats Joshua it would be some redemption, then you gotta give Parker a rematch with deontay. I wouldn’t mind if those were deontay’s two final matches before retiring.

It wasn’t that Parker looked amazing, he was solid as he always is, deontay simply looked worse than he ever has and as much as many will try to say it was due to Parker, some of it was, some of it was deontay simply being garbage now.

 

[UppercutFromHades]

Not impossible that this still happens but I don't think so. Wilder looked shot.

 

[jeff7b9]

It wasn’t that Parker looked amazing, he was solid as he always is, deontay simply looked worse than he ever has and as much as many will try to say it was due to Parker, some of it was, some of it was deontay simply being garbage now.

Yeah.

Parker stayed safe in a pretty boring fight against an old guy who didn't show up and clearly isn't hungry anymore.

 

[Jonny Ninja]

This is boxing in a nutshell.

The answer to your earlier post was Parker. So obvious that 1 of them was gonna fck it all up

 

[Dr. Stoppage]

Matchups and styles play a huge part in all of it.

Fury due to his size difference could probably defeat Uysk.

AJ vs. Fury would be the peak matchup in this generation of HW boxing.

Wilder I'm afraid is shot if losing a shut out decision to Parker.

 

[Blazeblack]

If it happens I’d see it. If anything, If wilder beats Joshua it would be some redemption, then you gotta give Parker a rematch with deontay. I wouldn’t mind if those were deontay’s two final matches before retiring.

It wasn’t that Parker looked amazing, he was solid as he always is, deontay simply looked worse than he ever has and as much as many will try to say it was due to Parker, some of it was, some of it was deontay simply being garbage now.

I think that Wilder would definitely be more motivated for the AJ fight, not that it means he'll win mind you.

I think part of his problem was that he thought that his shit didn't stink. I'm sure he was physically prepared but he hasn't looked very hungry. Doesn't help that he is pretty one dimensional and was up against a more versatile and motivated former title holder.

Wilder will probably push for an AJ clash and a possible rematch with Parker. But he honestly shouldn't if he isn't all in. He's 37 for Christ's sake, and has taken a couple savage beatings. He can't have more than a couple fights left in him if any.

 

[Colin Mackie]

Despite what he said in the ring yesterday, I think AJ has moved on from the fight. At the very least he knows it isn't realistic until Wilder gets a victory or two under his belt, and at this point it's going to be hard to get those victories against opponents who mean anything. Who is he going to fight to convince us he can still compete against AJ? A Parker rematch makes no sense seeing as most people think he was shut out last night. Andy Ruiz might be a possibility, but that guy has been so inactive I don't even think he's ranked by anyone at the moment. Retirement is really the best choice. Better that than to be used as a stepping stone for someone else.

 

[Dr Fong]

Pacman lost multiple times including a brutal all time viral KO and when the Mayweather fight was made years after it should've been it was still the biggest fight ever
Lennox Lewis & Mike Tyson same thing. There are certain fights that will always draw eyeballs and this is one of them
There's no way anyone can tell me that Wilder can't win. He would be a very big underdog but it's still Wilder one of the biggest punchers in history vs someone who's been buzzed and rocked plenty in his career

Pacman got his belt back off Bradley and won 3 straight fights in the meantime. And more than 2 years elapsed. This helped erase people's memories. Very different from wiping the memories of a complete shutdown loss in a few months with no wins to take the heat off.

It would be dumb to attempt to sell the AJ fight right now. Even surely the Saudis recognize they have better options.

Wilder's team should really be angling for the Francis fight now. It's marketable independent of the loss and is winnable (obviously). I don't see any other options for Wilder that are viable that could immediately build him back up.

 

[RichardHarrow]

It’s ridiculous that this is being considered after what we witnessed re Wilder.

That Ayahuasca did not do anything for the fire in his belly but kudos to him otherwise for the growth.

 

[ferrisjso]

Despite what he said in the ring yesterday, I think AJ has moved on from the fight. At the very least he knows it isn't realistic until Wilder gets a victory or two under his belt, and at this point it's going to be hard to get those victories against opponents who mean anything. Who is he going to fight to convince us he can still compete against AJ? A Parker rematch makes no sense seeing as most people think he was shut out last night. Andy Ruiz might be a possibility, but that guy has been so inactive I don't even think he's ranked by anyone at the moment. Retirement is really the best choice. Better that than to be used as a stepping stone for someone else.

It depends if he signed a contract with language entitling Wilder to the fight.

 

[Colin Mackie]

It depends if he signed a contract with language entitling Wilder to the fight.

It depends if he signed a contract with language entitling Wilder to the fight.

I think what the commentary team was saying during the fight card was that the AJ/Wilder fight would proceed if both fighters won on Saturday. Of course everyone thought the fights were just formalities, and no one seemed to entertain the thought that Parker might upset plans. I suppose they could just go ahead and have AJ/Wilder on March 9, but interest is so diminished at this point that they'd be looking at a fraction of the audience they could have had if Wilder had done his job last weekend.

 

[ferrisjso]

I think what the commentary team was saying during the fight card was that the AJ/Wilder fight would proceed if both fighters won on Saturday. Of course everyone thought the fights were just formalities, and no one seemed to entertain the thought that Parker might upset plans. I suppose they could just go ahead and have AJ/Wilder on March 9, but interest is so diminished at this point that they'd be looking at a fraction of the audience they could have had if Wilder had done his job last weekend.

Diminished interest AJ fight would still be the biggest non Fury fight of Wilders career.

I mean he went to arbitration for the 3rd Fury fight when no one wanted to see it and people thought he should just step aside. It was still worth it to him regardless of the lessened hype(of course Fury had the belt it's not neccessarily money but you know what I mean).