Anthony Joshua vs. Oleksandr Usyk.

Winner?

  • Total voters
    246
  • Poll closed .
Badr Hari said:
My point was he has two legitimate stoppages in his last six fights (and both against nearly 40 years old boxers and both past the sixth round). Takam stoppage was bullshit. I agree that Ruiz and Parker have good chins but we saw Chisora drop Parker within 10 seconds with the first landed punch and Whyte dropped him twice if I remember. We also saw Arreola drop Ruiz twice and had him doing the chicken dance in other occasions too. AJ hasn't had an early stoppage in five years and considering that Usyk will likely play it safe in the first few rounds I don't expect a short fight here at all. I think either AJ KO's him in the mid or late rounds (AJ has shown he can carry his power late in fights) or Usyk somehow finds a way to win.
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Parker was being very careful against Joshua. When you get an opponent that goes safety first it's very hard to KO them. Just look at Mikey Garcia vs Spence. Spence couldn't KO the much smaller man because Garcia just wouldn't engage. Same thing Parker did. Well Joshua I think could have got a stoppage against Ruiz if he didn't get clipped himself.

I think Joshua wins by points against Usyk. He'll be trying to pick Usyk off at range and pace himself carefully.
 
Badr Hari said:
Hmm I would disagree. If it's a physical fight in which he is hunting down Usyk for the kill from the get go it could very well turn out to be disastrous for him. We have seen him gassed with Takam trying the same thing. And we have seen him get countered to a TKO by Ruiz I trying the same thing. For some reason he is uncomfortable when taking back shots in exchanges and his gas tank is questionable. Coming in lean with focus on cardio and boxing behind the jab to a decision win against the undersized foreign fighter is the smartest strategy. AJ will be winning 10-9s with two jabs and a power punch per round easy. Usyk could have his best moments late in the fight but all AJ should do is make sure he doesn't get overwhelmed and take the match to the scorecards.
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I second this.

AJ has done the right thing coming in light for this fight. If I was AJ I'd just sit behind the jab for the first 8 rounds, frustrate Usyk, dont let him get inside and then hope that a more desperate Usyk leaves himself open in the closing rounds coming forward for the win and gets caught.
No way Usyk wins on points in the UK against AJ with Hearn's judges. Could be that Usyk really is that slick and outboxes AJ for a late stoppage, but imo a boring UD for AJ a la Ruiz 2 is the most likely result.
 
aries said:
Parker was being very careful against Joshua. When you get an opponent that goes safety first it's very hard to KO them. Just look at Mikey Garcia vs Spence. Spence couldn't KO the much smaller man because Garcia just wouldn't engage. Same thing Parker did. Well Joshua I think could have got a stoppage against Ruiz if he didn't get clipped himself.

I think Joshua wins by points against Usyk. He'll be trying to pick Usyk off at range and pace himself carefully.
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Good point. Usyk has never ever been dropped in his career. His defense is pretty basic and awful looking at times but can be effective. You see him eat half assed partially blocked punches all the time but you rarely see him hit with a bomb clean. He can get sloppy at times and sooner or later AJ is going to connect his power punches. We either see Usyk's career end with a KO or we see him showing us a CHIN and taking AJ the full twelve. Obviously AJ should be the favorite winning a decision but Usyk can't be written off if it goes that far. Usyk usually throws at least TWICE the amount of punches AJ throws per fight. And even if Joshua is landing at nearly 40 percent connect rate (which is unlikely) he is not outlanding the ukrainian cat IMO. One or two knockdowns and some rounds won by the jab could settle it for AJ though.
 
Blake_UK said:
I second this.

AJ has done the right thing coming in light for this fight. If I was AJ I'd just sit behind the jab for the first 8 rounds, frustrate Usyk, dont let him get inside and then hope that a more desperate Usyk leaves himself open in the closing rounds coming forward for the win and gets caught.
No way Usyk wins on points in the UK against AJ with Hearn's judges. Could be that Usyk really is that slick and outboxes AJ for a late stoppage, but imo a boring UD for AJ a la Ruiz 2 is the most likely result.
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Hard to outpoint a fast volume boxer with crazy stamina however. Won't be shocked if Usyk comes in throwing 900+ punches for twelve rounds. Even at 25 percent connect rate that becomes unbeatable. AJ can't rely on his boxing alone here. He can box well in spurts but he is just not busy enough. At one point his super heavyweight power will have to come into play and he'll have to drop Usyk at least once. Would hate to have a controversial finish to this great fight. Someone above mentioned it as an absolute possibility though lol
 
Badr Hari said:
Good point. Usyk has never ever been dropped in his career. His defense is pretty basic and awful looking at times but can be effective. You see him eat half assed partially blocked punches all the time but you rarely see him hit with a bomb clean. He can get sloppy at times and sooner or later AJ is going to connect his power punches. We either see Usyk's career end with a KO or we see him showing us a CHIN and taking AJ the full twelve. Obviously AJ should be the favorite winning a decision but Usyk can't be written off if it goes that far. Usyk usually throws at least TWICE the amount of punches AJ throws per fight. And even if Joshua is landing at nearly 40 percent connect rate (which is unlikely) he is not outlanding the ukrainian cat IMO. One or two knockdowns and some rounds won by the jab could settle it for AJ though.
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Agree with most of that. Even though Usyk lands at a much higher rate he's not had to do that against a really big HW like AJ. To land punches Usyk will have to get in range where AJ has a 3" height and a 4" reach advantage. He managed it against a young Joe Joyce in the WSB but Joyce is not nearly as mobile as AJ nor does he have as fast hands. I think AJ will win by the jab, unless Usyk gets gung ho and stands in front of him but Usyk doesn't fight like that.

Either way I'm looking forward to this one with great excitement. Not long now.
 
Boxiana said:
I thought he wanted to look like he was stalling and got accidentally counted out, but in reality just didn’t want to be there anymore.
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I saw it this way as well. Or that he was still struggling internally of wanting to 100% commit to going out on his sheild.
I thought his shock & surprise was a bit of an acting job to save face.
 
aries said:
Agree with most of that. Even though Usyk lands at a much higher rate he's not had to do that against a really big HW like AJ. To land punches Usyk will have to get in range where AJ has a 3" height and a 4" reach advantage. He managed it against a young Joe Joyce in the WSB but Joyce is not nearly as mobile as AJ nor does he have as fast hands. I think AJ will win by the jab, unless Usyk gets gung ho and stands in front of him but Usyk doesn't fight like that.

Either way I'm looking forward to this one with great excitement. Not long now.
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Joshua was actually boxing quite well against Pulev for stretches, especially with how he deployed his jab (and Pulev, even accounting for his age and other flaws, always was one of the best outside fighters at HW). The more I think about it, the biggest question in this fight is if Joshua can generally control things from range and land his jab. If he can't score with some regularity from the outside, Usyk won't really have to sell out to get inside when he ups his workrate in the middle rounds and builds towards the end. If he gives Usyk a lot of problems with it and forces Usyk to sell out to get inside, things will be tipped well in his favour, and he could win this fairly comfortably.

There has been plenty of justified complaining about good HW fights falling through or failing to materialize, but this is genuinely one of the most interesting HW fights of the last 5 years and we should take some pleasure from that.
 
The more I think about this one the more I think Usyk has a better than solid shot at pulling off the upset. AJ could smash him or win a comfy ud, esp on his own turf, but Usyk is no joke and a word class boxer, esp for a hw.

Is Usyk undersized? No doubt, but can he put a boxing lesson on AJ if he's on his game and working the jab, moving well, and setting up his shots? Of course.

THis one should be fun. I can't wait. I picked AJ on the poll but I think I might be changing my mind. If this was on a neutral site or in Usyk's spot then I would be much more comfortable w/ my picking of Usyk straight up, but I do think at better than 2-1, Usyk is the play here.

His boxing acumen is really something to admire and even an elite hw like AJ will have problems adjusting to that style imo. And don't forget, Usyk can/will make adjustments during the fight too... If he doesn't get ko'd in the process. Can't wait for this one. Should be super interesting and maybe a great fight in the process!!
 
Badr Hari said:
Hard to outpoint a fast volume boxer with crazy stamina however. Won't be shocked if Usyk comes in throwing 900+ punches for twelve rounds. Even at 25 percent connect rate that becomes unbeatable. AJ can't rely on his boxing alone here. He can box well in spurts but he is just not busy enough. At one point his super heavyweight power will have to come into play and he'll have to drop Usyk at least once. Would hate to have a controversial finish to this great fight. Someone above mentioned it as an absolute possibility though lol
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Ruiz is no slouch, but AJ successfully shut him out for 12 rounds.
Usyk does have an excellent work rate, but he has to be able to consistently get inside with a big reach and height disadvantage while not getting repeatedly tagged. Both fighters have wearing down power as opposed to 1 punch KO's, and if you are right and Usyk does connect enough it will be interesting to see how much AJ can take as both his chin and gas tank are slightly suspect imo.
Either way, I think this is a genuinely exciting HW fight.
 
I am very excited for this fight!!! I really don't know how the feeling out and tempo of Joshua vs Usyk will go. Something is telling me that Joshua is going to look very good here and make a statement win!!!
 
treelo said:
i dont know why we cant all just go "you know what, this is going to be an interesting scrap"

Joshua is a better boxer than people give him credit for, and Usyk hits harder than people give him credit for also.

I'm really looking forward to this fight, we have a good big man vs a very good little man.
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Amen.
 
JayE said:
Joshua was actually boxing quite well against Pulev for stretches, especially with how he deployed his jab (and Pulev, even accounting for his age and other flaws, always was one of the best outside fighters at HW). The more I think about it, the biggest question in this fight is if Joshua can generally control things from range and land his jab. If he can't score with some regularity from the outside, Usyk won't really have to sell out to get inside when he ups his workrate in the middle rounds and builds towards the end. If he gives Usyk a lot of problems with it and forces Usyk to sell out to get inside, things will be tipped well in his favour, and he could win this fairly comfortably.

There has been plenty of justified complaining about good HW fights falling through or failing to materialize, but this is genuinely one of the most interesting HW fights of the last 5 years and we should take some pleasure from that.
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Yeah he did some good work against Pulev. I think Usyk is more of a challenge as he is much lighter on his feet and fights at a higher pace. If AJ can keep Usyk at the end of a jab and stop Usyk being effective then I think it will be easy for him. If Usyk is forced to fight inside then I think Joshua has the advantage. I can't see Usyk electing to fight up close though. That's why I think AJ wins this one, if it doesn't work out at range then he can close and try to pressure Usyk. He has options but Usyk only has one way to win this fight unless he can get AJ to gas out.

It's intriguing and I can't wait to see what happens. Definitely a fight for the ages.
 
What should I be betting on here.
Joshua by points?
This is one of those fights that I really dont know what's gonna happen.
If I had to pick I guess Joshua UD.
BETMGM has a bunch of different bets. Joshua/Usyk by UD,SD,or MD.
Will Joshua be knock down and win. Will Usyk be knocked down and win. Various round bets. Will one of them win within in 60 secs (dumbest bet there is).
Give me some feedback.
@JayE
@sweetviolenturg
@Seano
@nac386
@Nova44
I'm at a bar and just forgot the other names I was gonna tag.
@ironfist05
 
Cariñito said:
What should I be betting on here.
Joshua by points?
This is one of those fights that I really dont know what's gonna happen.
If I had to pick I guess Joshua UD.
BETMGM has a bunch of different bets. Joshua/Usyk by UD,SD,or MD.
Will Joshua be knock down and win. Will Usyk be knocked down and win. Various round bets. Will one of them win within in 60 secs (dumbest bet there is).
Give me some feedback.
@JayE
@sweetviolenturg
@Seano
@nac386
@Nova44
I'm at a bar and just forgot the other names I was gonna tag.
@ironfist05
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I'm going out on a limb & taking Usyk via a late-round stoppage. I think he's going to make AJ work like he's never worked before, tire him out mentally & physically then pour it on until the ref stops it.
 
sweetviolenturg said:
I'm going out on a limb & taking Usyk via a late-round stoppage. I think he's going to make AJ work like he's never worked before, tire him out mentally & physically then pour it on until the ref stops it.
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God damn it.
This fight is almost "unbetable" which is not even a word.
I'm getting really excited for it tho, but Its just one of those that can really go any way i believe.
I'm gon a collect everyone's opinion and factor that in too make a bet.
But your word goes farther than mostly everyone else's.
 
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Cariñito said:
God damn it.
This fight is almost "unbetable" which is not even a word.
I'm getting really excited for it tho, but Its just one of those that can really go any way i believe.
I'm gon a collect everyone's opinion and factor that in too make a bet
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Best of luck, bro.
 
sweetviolenturg said:
Best of luck, bro.
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Thank u. I added to the post that your opinion tends to carry more weight than others.
You're a guy who I have yet to see have bias, and tend to call it genuinely and how you see it. And that's from boxing to other aspects in life.
Just in case you didnt know.
 
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