The RedCafe Boxing Thread

balaks said:
I can't agree with that. Joshua had maybe two or three good rounds and was getting hit four or five times more per round. It really wasn't close at all.
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It was closer than the first fight. AJ was too passive with the jab but he definitely had success especially with the body shots and hurt Usyk more than once. I didn't think he could technically outbox Usyk anyway but he did well.

As I said by the 9th it could have gone either way.
 
Withnail said:
Jaysus mate you're a little too much of an AJ fan. You're not being objective at all. This was peak cringe
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Not really, I just thought it was funny :lol:

TheReligion said:
I’m sure Joshua will apologise, as he should, in the media ASAP.

I’m sure they’ll mention concussion.
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Oh he'll apologise and he should... But yeah it's just a bloke showing emotion. You'd think he went out there and killed a man by some peoples (not on here) reaction!
 
Canagel said:
It was closer than the first fight. AJ was too passive with the jab but he definitely had success especially with the body shots and hurt Usyk more than once. I didn't think he could technically outbox Usyk anyway but he did well.

As I said by the 9th it could have gone either way.
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By the 9th AJ already probably needed a knockout as he was 2 or 3 rounds behind. He had a good 9th round but other than that he was outboxed throughout and was well behind on points. He was never close to being ahead at any point in the fight in my opinion.
 
Abraxas said:
Think some of you are being a little harsh on AJ's performance. I thought he did a reasonable job until say round 9 or 10, hanging with one of the best pure boxers on the planet in gruelling conditions. He was tidy enough with his bodywork, he just unraveled a bit towards the end and started to take shots cleanly and he just found Usyk's head very hard to catch clean, which I think most do.

Ultimately he's just not as good as Usyk and Fury, but he's done very well for himself. I preferred him earlier in his career when he committed more often but tonight wasn't a bad performance.
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Yeah that’s my take. It was a frustrating performance, the bodywork was great but he just wouldn’t capitalise on it.

I honestly think that since Ruiz he’s become scared of being hit. There were opportunities tonight to actually stand and trade with Usyk which was by far his best option as opposed to trying to box him….and he didn’t take them, he’d back away.
 
Hopefully that's joshua pushed into obscurity. Absolute dreadful performance. And piss poor sportsmanship. Hope he faces wilder next, or any other mediocre boxer who will knock him the feck out. Round one please. And then feck off. Dosser.
 
Tbf, as funny as it was, I am slightly worried AJ has a concussion as he was rambling a bit. That said, he has meme'd himself for life.
 
balaks said:
He did about as good as he could have done but he has never had anywhere near the talent of the real top fighters out there and he clearly believes his own hype. It was a good fight and he was much better prepared but he was well beaten in the end.
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Who are the "real top fighters"? It's only really Usyk and Fury, you're making it sound like there's a whole host of them. Nobody else has any massive claim to a better CV. He's done very well for himself, knocking over Wlad, Parker, Whyte, avenging a defeat which takes a bit of bottle.

Fury and Usyk are pretty damn good. Usyk will go down as an all time great for his amateur career, his work in two divisions, and Fury would be trouble for anyone in history due to his size and ability.

AJ has been a legit world class heavyweight with a good record he's just not as good as two special fighters. People love to beat him down for some reason. He has flaws but most heavies do.
 
I've rewatched it now and that speech was weirdly Partridge. Utterly bizarre and patronising. The mask slipped for a second and showed AJ outside of his PR bubble, and to be a total prick.
 
Annihilate Now! said:
Glad someone else thought this and not just me... I thought it was really odd. Usyk would throw 3 punches at Joshua's glove and they'd wax lyrical about an amazing combination.
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Sky are a joke. The reason they were biased is because AJ left them to sign for DAZN last year. Barely noted any of Joshua’s work, and they focused heavily on his speech at the end. The presenter even hinted at the fact that the speech was him letting go of his ‘media training’- ironic since it was Sky who trained him up in that regard as he was the face of their boxing.

Now that he is of no use to them, I feel they’ve just thrown him under the bus. I’m no AJ fan, but kinda feel bad for him with regards to their fight coverage, even the pre fight stuff. You can bet if he was still their fighter the commentary would’ve been completely different.
 
MIC_FIN said:
Hopefully that's joshua pushed into obscurity. Absolute dreadful performance. And piss poor sportsmanship. Hope he faces wilder next, or any other mediocre boxer who will knock him the feck out. Round one please. And then feck off. Dosser.
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Bit harsh
 
Habs said:
Sky are a joke. The reason they were biased is because AJ left them to sign for DAZN last year. Barely noted any of Joshua’s work, and they focused heavily on his speech at the end. The presenter even hinted at the fact that the speech was him letting go of his ‘media training’- ironic since it was Sky who trained him up in that regard as he was the face of their boxing.

Now that he is of no use to them, I feel they’ve just thrown him under the bus. I’m no AJ fan, but kinda feel bad for him with regards to their fight coverage, even the pre fight stuff. You can bet if he was still their fighter the commentary would’ve been completely different.
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In fairness, early in his career, they'd fondle his balls for knocking out a part-time plumber, so it's kind of even.
 
Habs said:
Sky are a joke. The reason they were biased is because AJ left them to sign for DAZN last year. Barely noted any of Joshua’s work, and they focused heavily on his speech at the end. The presenter even hinted at the fact that the speech was him letting go of his ‘media training’- ironic since it was Sky who trained him up in that regard as he was the face of their boxing.

Now that he is of no use to them, I feel they’ve just thrown him under the bus. I’m no AJ fan, but kinda feel bad for him with regards to their fight coverage, even the pre fight stuff. You can bet if he was still their fighter the commentary would’ve been completely different.
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I switched between streams and the American commentary was more complimentary of AJ than Sky’s. Sky really wanted to Usyk to win. Bizarre really.
 
Habs said:
Sky are a joke. The reason they were biased is because AJ left them to sign for DAZN last year. Barely noted any of Joshua’s work, and they focused heavily on his speech at the end. The presenter even hinted at the fact that the speech was him letting go of his ‘media training’- ironic since it was Sky who trained him up in that regard as he was the face of their boxing.

Now that he is of no use to them, I feel they’ve just thrown him under the bus. I’m no AJ fan, but kinda feel bad for him with regards to their fight coverage, even the pre fight stuff. You can bet if he was still their fighter the commentary would’ve been completely different.
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For what it's worth, I was watching the DAZN stream and their commentators were saying Usyk won comfortably and that it was a joke it was a split decision as well.
 
IWat said:
In fairness, early in his career, they'd fondle his balls for knocking out a part-time plumber, so it's kind of even.
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Only because it completely benefits them to have someone who sells pay-per views for them.

AJ clearly lost, but I can’t stand Sky. You just have to watch Johnny Nelsons pre-fight interviews calling AJ to retire if he loses the fight. Would’ve never heard this stuff if he was bringing money in for them.

They’ve been all over Usyk aswell- it’s clear he was favourite and they’d ideally want to sign him up for his upcoming fights
 
IWat said:
In fairness, early in his career, they'd fondle his balls for knocking out a part-time plumber, so it's kind of even.
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they have to. Building up fighters as they come up is part of the job.
 
Habs said:
Sky are a joke. The reason they were biased is because AJ left them to sign for DAZN last year. Barely noted any of Joshua’s work, and they focused heavily on his speech at the end. The presenter even hinted at the fact that the speech was him letting go of his ‘media training’- ironic since it was Sky who trained him up in that regard as he was the face of their boxing.

Now that he is of no use to them, I feel they’ve just thrown him under the bus. I’m no AJ fan, but kinda feel bad for him with regards to their fight coverage, even the pre fight stuff. You can bet if he was still their fighter the commentary would’ve been completely different.
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This explains it. The level of bias was astonishing and its definitely affecting people's opinion.
 
The Firestarter said:
That's what happens when you tell him he has won every round
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It'd weird they do that. Surely Joshua is experienced enough that you can tell him the truth?

Judas said:
So funny how they've switched on AJ, and its nothing to do with the actual boxing.
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Boxing seems to have extremely biased commentators. Is it because of the war with Ukraine making them hype up Usyk?

Canagel said:
Better boxer won but it was a close fight. This outclassed stuff is nonsense. As Eddie was saying by the 9th there was nothing between them and it was the final 3 that made the difference.
AJ definitely improved himself and there will be other fights out there for him.

The biased commentary by Sky Sports was weird to me. They were talking like it was a humiliation, it was far closer than they were saying.
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A few live updates of the fight that I looked at had it basically even around the 9th or 10th.

Irrational. said:
I was utterly baffled by that. This is why boxing is losing fans. Because of incompetent plebs like that. Would’ve been an absolute travesty had AJ even got a draw out of that. He was completely outclassed. It was like they were both fighting a different sport.
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Weirdly it was the American judge who gave the win to AJ while the English judge had Usyk by 2 rounds.
 
I don't think Macklin was that biased. The scoring at the start maybe, but his observations were alright for me.

It would be Adam Smith with any agenda as head of boxing at Sky. Bit of a knob anyway, shouldn't be a commentator.
 
A lot of hate for Joshua for some reason. I've seen post's that say he was completely outclassed, which is bollocks. He lost the fight, but it wasn't as wide as some people are making out.

He's a very good heavyweight, unfortunately he's not elite, but there are still some intriguing fights out there for him.
 
So was he concussed ?

Wtf was that at the end.

I thought I was watching a wwf throwback.
 
AJ did a lot better than I thought, but Usyk wasn’t his best self tonight and still won.

AJ ruined his performance by that meltdown with the belts and walking out the ring.

Fury is too big for Usyk to beat, be a good fight though.
 
Annihilate Now! said:
I wonder if we'll ever get that fight now... I doubt it.

Maybe if Fury loses to Usyk but I don't see that happening at all. He'll just box behind his very long jab.
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Fury has a max two fights left. Usyk and maybe Usyk part 2. However, I can see him avoiding Usyk as he is tricky. I think Fury wins but it wouldn't be the landslide he would've got against AJ.
 
fergies coat said:
A lot of hate for Joshua for some reason. I've seen post's that say he was completely outclassed, which is bollocks. He lost the fight, but it wasn't as wide as some people are making out.

He's a very good heavyweight, unfortunately he's not elite, but there are still some intriguing fights out there for him.
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AJ has definitely fecked a lot of peoples mums.
 


By the 9th round:

First judge: 5 rounds to Joshua and 4 to Usyk.
Third judge: 4 rounds to Joshua and 5 to Usyk.

The difference was the last three rounds and it's backed by the scorecard. On what earth is this supposed to be "outclassed"? It was a good effort by AJ, nothing to be ashamed about here against an all time great boxer.
 
Canagel said:


By the 9th round:

First judge: 5 rounds to Joshua and 4 to Usyk.
Third judge: 4 rounds to Joshua and 5 to Usyk.

The difference was the last three rounds and it's backed by the scorecard. On what earth is this supposed to be "outclassed"? It was a good effort by AJ, nothing to be ashamed about here against an all time great boxer.
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I thought the 9th could potentially have been a 10-8 to Joshua, which would have made it a bigger swing... But then the same could be said for the 10th in Usyk's favour.

He definitely pulled away in the last 3 rounds either way.
 
AJ was beaten by the better man tonight, Usyk was next level in the latter rounds. It's always difficult to judge a speech post fight when emotions are very high, but the insinuation that the decision was due to some wider view on the Ukraine war was a bit tasteless.

Hopefully Usyk and Fury can get a fight together to get a unification battle on the cards.
 
I wonder how Joshua will be ranked in the all time list when it's all said and done.

I give the guy a lot of shit but he actually had a decent run while a champ and his win against wlad was genuinely impressive (even if wlad was geriatric by then) so the resume is there.

But the problem is I don't really see him beating any of the all time greats, I doubt he could beat a peak wlad or Lewis or Holmes etc etc.

Had a nice career when it's all said and done.
 
Annihilate Now! said:
I thought the 9th could potentially have been a 10-8 to Joshua, which would have made it a bigger swing... But then the same could be said for the 10th in Usyk's favour.

He definitely pulled away in the last 3 rounds either way.
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On the commentary they were saying he needed a knock out because he was getting outclassed which is blatantly not true. If he carried doing what he was doing in the last rounds it would have been at the least a draw. He got hit too much at the end.
 
That meltdown will have hit harder than anything Usyk threw tonight. The speech was patronizing, rambling and tasteless and Usyk looked mortified.

The excuses will be rolled out this week, but that really is shocking.
 
Concust post bout hilarity aside, Joshua have a good account of himself tonight. He has plenty to offer the division. He’s easily the third best HW behind Fury and Usyk, who are just different class. Those two are head and shoulders above the rest.
 
The judge that gave it to AJ reminded me of that idiotic judge that gave it to Canelo over Mayweather, awful scoring of the cards and should never be able to be a judge for another fight again.
 
I am sorry for AJ, he comes across as a man sincerely self-doubting his own hype which is always good, yet still firmly standing by the delusion and the status that came with that same hype. The fact that, even tonight, one judge felt he won the match against all the wisdom, just shows again how artificially high AJ’s boxing trajectory has been elevated since the 2012 night he won a much maligned gold at the Olympics in London. All in all, Joshua was always a decent, non-natural boxeur who fell victim of a carefully staged, undeserved fast-tracking to the starlight. May he find a more natural and satisfying dimension in his post-boxing, retirement life.
 
He's a great boxer. Gold medalist and heavyweight champion. Just not an all time great and kinda wack on the mic.
 
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