By Charles Brun: Anthony Joshua appears to be enjoying playing Monday morning quarterback in breaking down Tyson Fury’s recent win over Deontay Wilder.
Joshua says he would have put it on former WBC heavyweight champion Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs) even more than Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) in his 7th round TKO victory on February 22 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Wilder fell apart almost immediately against Fury, and was knocked down twice before his trainer Mark Breland ushered him out by throwing in the towel.
Joshua predicted before the fight that Fury, 31, would “expose” Wilder, and he turned out to be correct. Whether Fury can do the same thing against Wilder in their third fight, it remains to be seen.
Joshua says he figured Wilder would have a hard time staying a world champion. However, Wilder held the WBC title for five years from 2015 to 2020, which is longer than the title reign that Joshua had before he was knocked out last year by Andy Ruiz Jr.
Joshua: Wilder only had one weapon
According to IBF/WBA/WBO champion Joshua (23-1, 21 KOs), Wilder is a fighter that only has a right hand in his arsenal. Once Fury took that away, Wilder had nothing to fall back on. He lacked the mobility that Joshua used to defeat Andy Ruiz Jr. on December 7 in Saudi Arabia.
Wilder has since come out and revealed that he had a biceps injury during the Fury fight, and he recently had surgery to repair the problem. Just how much
At this point, Joshua is stuck living vicariously through what Fury accomplished in beating Wilder because he still hasn’t faced him. Until Joshua eventually faces Wilder, he can only go by what Fury did to speculate how he would do against Deontay.
“I just knew that when he gets to the top level, it will be difficult, because it’s one thing getting there, and it’s another thing staying there,” said Joshua to Sky Sports Boxing.
“It’s been difficult for him, and then he lands his punch, and he’s been victorious, but I always believe that when you go to war, you can’t have one weapon in your arsenal, which was his right hand.
“Once that was taken away from him, which Tyson Fury did, I’m not going to go into tactics, but he was able to annihilate Deontay Wilder and expose him for some of his weaknesses. He doesn’t know how to flow and move side to side, and move back and control the fighter,” said Joshua.
Deontay hasn’t needed to use his feet to win
Wilder hasn’t had to develop his mobility during his career. Up until his last fight, he’s always been the one coming forward. When you’ve got a punch like Wilder, you don’t need to become mobile.
Look at all the past knockout artists at heavyweights like George Foreman and Mike Tyson. None of them were fighters that were known for their mobility. For Wilder to use up energy moving around the ring, it would be self-defeating.
In the trilogy with Fury, Deontay would be better off coming forward and throwing more punches. He wasn’t effective going backward, and he wouldn’t have done well using lateral movement.
The fighters that have done well against Fury during his career have always pressured him. In the last fight, Wilder didn’t do that. He backed up and let Fury bombard him along the ropes. Was that because of Wilder’s biceps injury? It could be.
Wilder may not need ever to develop his left hand because there’s been plenty of past boxing greats that have done well despite them only using their right hands.
It’s vital for Wilder to throw more punches in the rematch with Fury, and not back up against the ropes like he did last February.
