Really? I know stoppages in the UK tend to be earlier than the US, but Johnson was offering nothing. If the fight was allowed to continue he would have just got hammered more and more. Even if that was allowed to go on there was no way that would he would have lasted much longer anyway, he looked in a bad state at the end of the 1st.
Maybe, or he would have thrown a ridiculously lucky punch. Yes - it was likely Johnson was going to lose, and I can understand the referee stopping the fight at the end of round one (unfortunate that the 'saved by the bell' rules were in effect). The problem is that
that stoppage was short. In all probability George Foreman was going to lose on points to Michael Moorer - if that fight was called off we would never have seen Foreman be heavyweight champion. Muhammad Ali went 7 rounds getting pummeled against the ropes against Foreman as well, he then won. For me the punches that he was getting hit with
at that point of time didn't justify the stoppage, they weren't clean and were largely bouncing off the gloves. He may have been knocked out later in the round or been unable to defend himself, but I think it was too preemptive.
What's frustrating about Anthony Joshua fights is that it is exactly the same as Deontay Wilder.
I have no problem with boxers not fighting brilliant fighters early in their career. What concerns me is that the caliber of fights Joshua is fighting is not testing him. Much like Wilder who never went more than four rounds - before fighting Stiverne who he beat over 12 rounds - is that it just isn't good preparation. We've seen Joshua dispose of guys with similar style throughout his career, walk forward plodders who don't know how to fight on the outside or move - and don't genuinely have the power or inside games to trouble the big guy. Exactly the same as Wilder. So he's not building his repertoire, he's just padding his record. Can we honestly say that he has been presented with a variety of challenges in his fights? No.
The comparison is tedious (particularly coming from a New Zealander) - but one thing I like about Joseph Parker's opponents is that they have offered different things. The opponents are of a similar caliber - I don't know if I could pick a winner between Brian Minto vs Michael Sprott, or Marcelo Luiz Nascimento vs Raphael Zumbano Love. But what is good is that Parker is being tested against a lot of different styles and is building. Joshua obviously does a lot of gym work (as does Wilder), but their ring time isn't preparing them for a good fight.
OhDannyBoy mentioned Ustinov as an opponent for Joshua - and I think that is
exactly who he should fight. Ustinov is very big and knows how to use his reach to keep space. He's a bit like Tyson Fury in that he has good reach but doesn't have particularly impressive knock-out power. His record has largely been built against journeymen, and the only top 10 fight he has faced (Pulev) he lost to in an 11th round KO. Joshua would likely be too athletic, but it would be the first fight where he didn't have a size advantage (which he wouldn't against any of the current champions), wouldn't be fighting guys who have to move forward to be effective. It would actually be a
test rather than an execution.
In terms of other promising fighters: Artur Szpilka is a fighter who would be custom designed for Joshua. He has pretty crappy defense, the only good opponent he has beaten is Adamek who hit him in the face an awful lot. I think someone like Carlos Takam would be a really good fight as well. He's aggressive and fast and gave Povetkin plenty of trouble.
Johnson, he fought a succession of fighters who were not even close to being in the top 50.
