The Boxing and MMA thread

Pretty decent UFC card tonight and Joshua/Usyk. Reckon there is potential for a few upsets.

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English fans booing national anthem again. Nice :clap:t4:

Is AJ the Manchester United of heavyweight boxing or is he a horse that only jumps as high as he has to?

The bodybuilder wouldn’t have got close to Fury anyway tbh

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He’s overrated, I dont think Wilder is that brilliant but think he would knock Joshua out, only a matter of time before Fury gets them.

State of that division is embarassing, I really miss the days of Tyson, that was one hell of a division.

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Looking forward to seeing Nick Diaz back in the ring. 6 years since he’s last been at it. Facing Lawler. Should be a good match up.

Volk v ortega should be decent too.

The KO in the heavy weight pre-lims just now…spit flying everywhere

Completely.

He looks the part and says all the right things but, in the ring, he’s pretty one dimensional. Usyk totally schooled him last night; the chasm in technique and ringcraft was obvious.

As well as being technically deficient, having simply relied on his power to overwhelm his opponents, I also wonder if AJ is simply too nice and lacks that killer instinct? :thinking:

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That’s the problem for me. He has the tools, he just lacks the nerve maybe to attack dangerous opponents and becomes far too passive.

Usyk was amazing, a masterclass in boxing. He beats Fury on last night’s showing.

Volk vs Ortega is probably fight of the year for me, or at least that 3rd round was round of the year. Absolute carnage.

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Would AJ have beaten Frank Bruno…?

I think AJ would probably beat Bruno,he’d keep him on the end of his jab and be able to set his feet to unleash power punches on him,as Bruno was pretty static,although Bruno did have a decent punch himself and could probably wobble or floor AJ if caught.

I’d be very surprised if AJ takes the rematch and expects a different outcome with Usyk,I can’t see him being able to ever cope with his movement,even if he had a 6 month camp trying to train against it (he already came in lighter to be faster on his feet and last 12 rounds without gasing out and that didn’t work),as far as I’m concerned it’ll be the same outcome,he just doesn’t have the experience, skills or the speed to beat him,unless Usyk stands in front of him trading punches (which isn’t going to happen).

I think AJ’s best bet is to let the others fight him and see if they can beat him,then fight them to get his belts back.

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Fury must be gutted he didn’t get AJ before Usyk. Would’ve been massive money for a piss easy fight.

In the end, it is a little surprise (especially how Usyk did it, quite comfortably to be honest), but it really shouldn’t be a big one either.

Joshua made some changes for Ruiz II, but already then, I really wasn’t impressed with that performance going forward and thinking about better opponents than the state Ruiz was in that II fight. He passed the test, but I just thought nah, this isn’t enough for the top tasks ahead, unless there are more drastic changes, which is almost impossible at his age/stage of career.

There’s a limit how much he can change/learn in a such a short space of time and in the now, while he tries to keep his belts against better and better opponents and unify the rest.

Pulev was past it, like a few of his other opponents when he fought them when he did. His CV is quite good compared to other boxers, but then we also have to put all of that in the context of that time. Boxing is still crap for some of the aspects like that matchmaking and some points decisions.

I wouldn’t say Joshua is a fraud, but he’s that one great modern example how the hype turned into a perfectly built brand outside the ring, more than the boxer he is. He’s really likeable (this is also possibly planned as well, to really play that card as much as he can), so it is/was easy for massive amounts of people who don’t know much about boxing to overrate him as a boxer.

I think for a while now and possibly since the Ruiz loss (and Fury coming back), he’s already at peace with this. His talk has changed, if you notice carefully. It’s like he knows there are more losses coming his way, but he’s now trying to find pleasure and greatness in this approach; “I’m a warrior, I want to fight the best, I’ll give my physical all, try and learn a few technical details if I can, win back belts a few times if I can and that’s it”. I think deep down he knows he’s not the best, but he’s at peace knowing he’s one of the best, as long as he gives 100%, he will be in the conversation at least and people will still generally like him.

Now… we’ll see if the long break was problematic for Fury. We can only go by his last performance and there are no “news/evidence” of his work changing, so you’d have to say he’s the unofficial number one heavyweight. We’ll see what Usyk does next, like Roy Jones Jr. said, I hope we see more interesting fights now post-virus and with the division getting a new candidate who looks like he could at least compete.

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Joshua gets too hard a time for me. He’s not the world class boxer he was hyped up to be, but at least he takes challenging fights. His resume is far more interesting than Wilder or Fury.

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Smith v Fowler about to start.

A bit annoying to have 2 Liverpool lads and supporters fighting each other…

Here’s hoping Wilder knocks fuck out of that arrogant prick.
One can only hope.

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Ruiz and Ussyk proved that anything can happen in heavyweight boxing nowadays.

Don’t have to ‚like’ Joshua, Wilder or Fury on a personal level but I am enjoying this boxing era more than the Klitschko years.

The Klitschkos were on a higher level (or heavyweight boxing in general has been in the past) but their fights were just boring.

Tyson Fury devides opinion but he is the worlds best heavyweight boxer atm. Unfortunately for him he can be his own biggest opponent and unfortunately for us he is a ManU fan.

Wilder is fake. The best american heavyweight boxer at the moment and he is getting hyped of course.
It’s like saying Christian Pulisic is a footballer on the highest level - they’re not. Just getting hyped because they’re american.

Going to bed now and hoping I won’t be too late for the fight.

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Oh wow.

Couldn’t stay up but can’t wait to watch a re-run.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/boxing/58860290