By Scott Gilfoid: WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder seems to have a real eye for breaking talent, as he held nothing back this week in his media conference call in dissecting this Saturday’s fight between Wladimir Klitschko and IBF heavyweight world champion Anthony Joshua at Wembley Stadium in London, England. In talking about the flaws of both fighters, Wilder sounded like a skilled trainer in getting right to the root of the problems that both fighters have.
The things that Wilder said about both fighters suggest to me that he would be a great trainer and an excellent motivator if he were in the corner of these two guys. More than anybody, Wladimir is missing a motivator presence since the death of his late trainer Emanuel Stewart. Wilder would get the most of Wladimir.
“Joshua is not as flexible,” said Wilder about the heavily muscular 250lb Joshua. ”I don’t think he’s super athletic and doesn’t have that much coordination because of the stiffness.”
I totally agree with Wilder. Joshua is not flexible, because of all the body building muscle he carries around. He reminds me a lot of how body builders in the gym look when they throw air shots in the gym. They tend to look slow, lethargic and not athletic. I think Joshua made a huge mistake after he turned pro at 220 lbs. in 2013.
Joshua had 2 roads to go in when it came to his physique and training. He could have been satisfied with his 220lb. weight and focused on developing some badly needed hand speed and agility or he could add even more muscle weight and wind up looking like a huge body builder. Unfortunately for Joshua, he chose to do the latter by packing on 30 pounds of muscle weight in just 4 years. Joshua is now 250lbs, slow, and inflexible.
The weight hasn’t made Joshua a better fighter than he was in 2012 when he was in the amateur ranks. To be sure, Joshua has a lot of knockouts on his resume as a pro, but those knockouts have come against awful opposition for the most part. The 1 or 2 decent opponents that Joshua has fought in Dillian Whyte and Dominic Breazeale were either injured or they fought a stupid fight by not attacking Joshua the way that Mihai Nistor, Roberto Cammarelle and Erislandy Savon did in getting the better of him in the amateur ranks.
I don’t think Joshua will ever take all the muscle weight off that he’s put on. I think he believe it’s helping him. That’s the sad part. Joshua has built his muscles up and I think if anything, he’ll add even more muscle weight in the future and wind up a slow 260-270lb heavyweight with poor stamina and slow hand speed. What’s interesting is that many of Joshua’s boxing fans think he has fast hands.
Believe me, Joshua is not fast. He’s very slow. I think he’s one of the slower heavyweights in the division. His fans see something that’s not there. Joshua is painfully slow, and it’s not surprising because he’s carrying around all that body building muscle.
“There’s a lot of flaws that Joshua has,” said Wilder about Joshua. ”A lot of people look at Joshua and they’re going off of his physique and they’re going off of the hype that their countryman has brought to them,” said Wilder.
Yes, I agree with Wilder COMPLETELY about him having a lot of flaws, and his loyal boxing fans going off his physique and hyping his wins over weak opposition. Some boxing fans believed the only reason Joshua won the 2012 Olympic gold medal in London, England was because he looked the most impressive physically compared to his opponents, and he was fighting in front of a large pro-Joshua crowd that cheered every punch he threw in the Olympic competition. I saw that Olympics and I thought Joshua lost all 4 fights he took part in.
I did notice that the pro-Joshua crowd cheered madly every time he threw punches in those fights. Whether the cheering of the boxing fans influenced the judges to give Joshua wins that he might not have rated is open to debate. All I know is Joshua appeared to lose to Cammarelle, Savon, Ivan Dychko and Zhilei Zhang. When I look at the video of those 4 fights, I wonder what on earth the judges were watching that made them give the victories to Joshua rather than his opponents, because he sure look like the loser in those 4 matches to me.
Wilder says that Wladimir Klitschko didn’t lose his last fight to Tyson fury because he wasn’t able to be competitive with him. He lost because he wasn’t letting his hands go in the fight, which is what I believe too. Wladimir was the better fighter than Fury. He just failed to throw punches in one of the worst fights of his life. It would have been such an easy fight for Wladimir if he’d let his hands go, because Fury’s shots showed no power at all. His arms were like limp noodles in throwing slapping shots. Wladimir gave Fury too much respect by not throwing punches and attacking him all-out the way he needed to do.
“Klitschko didn’t lose by not being able to compete with Tyson Fury, or do the things he had to do. He lost because he didn’t throw no damn punches,” said Wilder. “I want him to fight in this fight. I don’t want him to hold back, because Fury was bigger than him or this and that. Forget all of that. You got to go in there and fight. You’re the champ. You don’t care about nobody being bigger than you.”
I’m telling you, Wladimir needs Wilder in his corner for the Joshua fight. If nothing else, Wladimir needs Wilder there as a motivator, because this is what he’s clearly missing. Wilder would light a fire under Wladimir’s backside in the corner the way Stewart used to when he wasn’t fight aggressively. I think Wilder would do an even better job of motivating Wladimir than Stewart, because he wouldn’t cushion the blow in telling him what he’s doing wrong. Wilder would tell Wladimir how it is and have him attacking Joshua with aggression, even if it means he’s potentially knocked out in the fight.
Wladimir has a choice to make on Saturday. He can either stand on the outside without throwing punches like Dominic Breazeale and Eric Molina both did in their knockout losses to Joshua or he can go after him the way Nistor did to get a victory. I think there’s only one way of beating Joshua and that’s to attack him the way Cammarelle, Nistor and Savon did. You beat a slow fighter like Joshua with combinations. You can imagine that the reason why Joshua is having so many problems in his sparring with Joe Joyce is the way that he attacks his opponents with combinations on the inside.
Joshua isn’t used to that kind of fighting. Joshua is used to fighting guys that just stand there like bumps on a log, waiting for him to throw the punches and dictate the pace. Joyce isn’t that kind of fighter. He’s going to attack you and fight you hard until the bitter end. Joyce also throws body punches, and Joshua is definitely not used to getting hit to the body. It doesn’t matter how much muscle Joshua packs on, it’s not going to help him if he gets hit to the body by Wladimir or any other fighter in the heavyweight division. Joshua needs to lose 30 lbs. of muscle weight and work on his speed and mobility.