The RedCafe Boxing Thread

pocco said:
They both fought Wlad, their best opponent perhaps. Definitely AJs. Fury did it first though. Wilder for me is better than anything else AJ has faced, especially in terms of the danger of the fight and the risk involved, and Fury fought him 3 times. Everybody wanted AJ vs Wilder a few years ago, yet as soon as Fury schooled him he was suddenly average etc. Yet AJ wouldn't fight him at the time. You'll probably claim Wilder ducked AJ, but I don't see why Wilder would have ducked AJ when he fought the better fighter in Fury 3 times, getting beat up a couple of times. Besides AJ has pretty much admitted it because the $50m apparently didn't make sense.
Click to expand...

Yes I would agree with that. I do think it's more a case of Joshua's management team trying to protect him as they know he isn't as good as Fury that is to blame for the perception of him ducking fights.

Fury doesn't have that excuse really as there's no one he should be scared to face
 
OverratedOpinion said:
I think Usyk is a more difficult fight than Wilder. Wilder is more dangerous but there are a lot more chances to win against him.

Did AJ duck Wilder or was it the other way around? I have no idea. All I would say is to your point of Wilder taking the Fury fight, he thought Fury was finished as did most people. That's why he took it. He fought him in the rematches because what else was he supposed to do?

To me if you look at Usyk and Wilder as about levelling out and then look at Wlad being on both it's pretty much tied.

Then look at the rest of their resumes and it's not even remotely close. Ruiz, Povetkin, Parker, Takam and Whyte.

I'm not saying it's a hall of fame worthy list as it certainly isn't but when you look at who Fury's fought it looks like a murderers row.

This fight against someone who's literally never boxed before is the cherry on the cake though. I was defending Fury on here years before her returned and getting pelters for it but this is just a step too far for me.
Click to expand...

Fair enough if you believe that. In my opinion AJ made a meal of some of those fights and made them look better than they were. Re Wilder, he shouldn't have believed he was washed up. I could see he wasn't, probably you could too. He'd already won two fights that year I believe, before the first fight.

Like you said, they're not the best resumes anyway. Not worth splitting hairs over, but that's largely down to a lack of quality at HW. For what it's worth, I think Fury will fight Usyk eventually, probably AJ too. But I don't blame him having a bit of fun and making money in the meantime because there's not a lot out there and he was frozen out when he was trying to make headway in the division, constantly dismissed by AJ etc years ago before he got his shot at Wlad and Wilder.
 
lsd said:
Yes I would agree with that. I do think it's more a case of Joshua's management team trying to protect him as they know he isn't as good as Fury that is to blame for the perception of him ducking fights.

Fury doesn't have that excuse really as there's no one he should be scared to face
Click to expand...

I honestly don't think he is scared if any of them. I think either they're ducking him or it's the usual bollocks surrounding money.
 
Love how many people seem to be offended that Fury is fighting Ngannou, I saw some weird talk show hosts from YouTube channels I'd never heard of completely lose their mind about the announcement. Boxing has been shite or years, not very often that you get two of the best in their weight class fighting each other in their true physical prime. Because there's always shitty politics, managers and organisations involved, to a point where it somewhat feels the sport is dying. Unlike the UFC, where a big part of the draw is that you very regularly have the best in their division fighting the best, creating a highly competitive scene, continually helping MMA rise in popularity.

Personally I don't mind Fury at all, and I've liked Ngannou as well, both phenomenal heavyweights in their sport. If they want to have a freaky exhibition match for crazy oil money, why not? I might even watch it. Francis deserves the pay-check, and Fury might not have the most impressive heavyweight resume, but in my opinion he's done more than enough in boxing to do whatever he pleases.

pocco said:
But I don't blame him having a bit of fun and making money in the meantime because there's not a lot out there and he was frozen out when he was trying to make headway in the division, constantly dismissed by AJ etc years ago before he got his shot at Wlad and Wilder.
Click to expand...

That's pretty much how I feel.
 
Another robbery in boxing with Kambosos getting the decision over Maxi Hughes despite clearly losing the fight.
 
Couple of World title fights on Sky starting now from Japan, Ramirez v Shimizu and Inoue v Fulton
 
I've got Inoue in every round at the end of the 6th. Fulton is getting beaten to the exchanges everytime.
 
Inoue is an absolute animal, as soon as he gets a sniff he goes for the finish. Utterly ruthless.
 
Inoue with a ridiculous performance. Complete dominance and a great finish. Probably one of the most impressive performances I've ever seen. P4P best, comfortably.
 
Up there with one of the most impressive boxing performances I've seen. Spence and Crawford will have to put on an absolute show on Saturday to challenge for p4p status.
 
sifi36 said:
Inoue is an absolute animal, as soon as he gets a sniff he goes for the finish. Utterly ruthless.
Click to expand...

Aye, it was unreal. Fulton was clearly losing every round but I actually thought he was handling Inoue's power quite well, until that happened. Safe to say that Inoue is carrying his power up to another division.
 
Pat_Mustard said:
Aye, it was unreal. Fulton was clearly losing every round but I actually thought he was handling Inoue's power quite well, until that happened. Safe to say that Inoue is carrying his power up to another division.
Click to expand...

If he beats Tapales next, which I think he will, he’ll have cleaned up at both 118 and 122lb. What’s the limit for him? 126? 130? As great as he is, I think that’s probably the limit for his frame.
 
Welsh Wonder said:
Inoue with a ridiculous performance. Complete dominance and a great finish. Probably one of the most impressive performances I've ever seen. P4P best, comfortably.
Click to expand...
I turned down an FA Cup Final ticket to attend Inoue's fight in Glasgow a few years ago. I knew then that he was exceptional.
 
Inoue is brilliant. Probably my favourite right now
 
Glorio said:
Not Usyk?

Fury, Usyk, Wilder would be the pick. Folks underestimate Usyk at their own peril.
Whyte is the level below that.

Joshua has struggled to agree fights with 2 of those, and while there's loads of nonsense flying around, Wilder and Fury are probably more at fault for that fight not happening than him. At one point they actively froze him out, despite him having more belts.

Now Joshua is over hyped, don't get me wrong - but he still has a better CV than Fury and Wilder.

Klitschko, Parker, Povetkin, Usyk, Whyte, even Pulev are serious names to have on your CV.

Ortiz was already past his prime by the time Joshua was an established fighter.

Wilder is the biggest joker of all - how many champions has he actually fought? He took on what he thought was a finished Fury and got pulled into a trilogy, apart from that, you're basically scraping the barrel
Click to expand...

The bolded part just highlights my issue.

Remove Usyk and what are we left with really ?

Check when he fought these guys, Klitschko, Povetkin and Pulev were so far past their best days when they fought Joshua, they are just names by this point.

Parker and Whyte were unbeaten at the time but neither have gone on to do much tbh, good fighters but not great fighters.

So who else has he beat ?
 
So Spence v Crawford tomorrow night what do we think.

I am surprised by the lack of publicity outside US as in my mind this is the biggest match up in years if not decades.

I am also surprised it's actually happening and no one has pulled out injured or something as i just cannot recall the last time two truly great fighters both still unbeaten actually faced each other.

I'm going with Spence but just looking forward to seeing it and hope it lives to to expectations
 
I think Crawford stops him late. Spence needs to hurt Crawford to win imo since he's at a speed and skill disadvantage. He has the power but I don't think it'll be enough.
 
I prefer Spence as a fighter, but I think Crawford may just edge this with tighter work. Spence has shown he can come on strong in tough fights though so very intriguing.

Hopefully it lives up to expectations. It is crazy how little fanfare there is though.
 
I'd go for Crawford by decision. I just think he's a great fighter. At least on ability, but probably not record (this fight is actually crucial for his legacy)

Spence has to use his pressure, size, presence in the ring against the older man. He's got good chances of course, I'd just go for the skill and feet of Crawford.
 
Not seen them enough recently to have an informed opinion but based on what I have seen previously, I’d back Spence. He’s a game raiser who fights to the level of his opponent and manages to just always be out of range while getting his own shots off.
 
Great bout, two of the best pound for pound fighters around. Going for Crawford as he has the better skills and speed, but wouldn’t put any money on it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.