Following Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua‘s respective warm-up fights, one Hall of Fame inductee has re-evaluated his prediction for their expected showdown.
The two heavyweights came through their respective outings against Mariusz Wach and Kristian Prenga over the weekend, with both of them winning by stoppage.
As it happened, though, Joshua was made to overcome two knockdowns in the opening round, causing many to raise doubts over his punch resistance.
Alarmingly, the 36-year-old was floored within the first 20 seconds – courtesy of a Prenga right uppercut – before climbing off the canvas a second time to stop his man in round two.
This followed his dominant, yet somewhat flawed, display against Arslanbek Makhmudov, who he unanimously outpointed with a pedestrian performance in April.
One man who has now commented on the expected clash between Fury and ‘AJ’ is former world champion Barry McGuigan, who was one of many who was initially favouring the superior power of Joshua.
It is now harder to make that same prediction with any real certainty, and while the Irish boxing icon highlighted on social media that Fury hardly produced the most convincing performance, he felt that Joshua looked ‘completely shot’ against Prenga.
“I wrote in my Daily Mirror column last week that I believed Joshua’s punch resistance had evaporated, but I still thought he could beat Fury.
“But AJ looked completely shot [against Prenga]. Having said that, Fury looked pretty mediocre against Wach.”
While Joshua has always carried considerable power, Fury’s style is clearly more reliant on fast-twitch reflexes and mobility.
At the age of 37, however, it would appear that ‘The Gypsy King’ is unable to carry out this approach to the same extent he did a few years ago.
