Mate I know you know a lot about boxing but I've seen you on the Boxing thread and I know your rate Fury highly.
But here's my opinion.
At this stage in their careers a fit and firing Fury would edge it against Joshua although I would not write Joshua off.
BUT Joshua knows himself that he's not the finished article. After all he's still only had 19 fights.
Add to this the fact the styles make fights and that Wlad was probably in the best shape he's been in for over 7-8 years and you can't really compare the Fury fight to Joshua's fight.
We'll just have to see how Joshua progresses but the fact is Joshua could end up being a hall of famer whereas that is now less likely to be the case with Fury due to his troubles outside of the ring.
I wouldn't argue against that at all, the Tyson Fury who fought Wladmir can give anyone problems and defeat them emphatically but given his issues outside the ring am sceptical; am not sure if you followed the career of Ricky Hatton but his issues outside the ring aged him significantly in the ring, Boxing's no joke and every little thing needs to be perfect when it comes to your physical and mental preparation, it's not like in another sport; these men are going to war literally put their lives on the line and that's an intensity we won't see beyond combat sport. And I agree Joshua is still a work in progress but right now I'd still put my money on him if he were to face Fury later in the year but were it not for his issues then I'd back Tyson.
Tyson Fury fought a Wladmir who was on a 21 fight, 10 year winning streak.
AJ fought a Wladmir who was coming off a loss, 41 years old and had been inactive for 1.5 years, probably the longest inactivity of his career.
All you can say is maybe Wlad was more motivated for the AJ fight, but he is a fighter who always comes prepared to fight, is in great condition and never overweight, etc
So in my opinion Fury fought the better Wladmir and also AJ's style allowed Wladmir to have more success, Fury is more evasive, great speed and footwork which did not allow Wlad to impose himself. Wlad typically does not fight at 240lb, it was a ploy to take AJ into deep waters; he wanted to favour endurance/stamina rather then power/size but as we saw he did not have a lot left in the last quarter of the fight and his legs had gone or else he'd have taken the punches better but that's what age and inactivity can do to you. He also made the mistake of not stepping on the gas pedal after Knocking AJ down.
To AJ's credit he did not fatigue and was able to take some rounds off when Wlad did not improve his work rate after round 6. He's only 19 fights in so am not going to comment on AJ's potential as a Hall of Famer but he has a very high ceiling when it comes to potentially improving and getting even better, yeah a real shame about Fury I don't have high hopes from him but that win against Wladmir was so special won't take that away from him
