McCrory: Anthony Joshua Has So Much Frailty Made Ordinary Fighter Look Dangerous
Ex-world champion Glenn McCroy has questioned the performance of Anthony Joshua over his two fights with Andy Ruiz Jr.
McCrory, who reigned as IBF cruiserweight ruler before moving up to heavyweight, aired his views in the aftermath of Joshua’s Saudi redemption.
Mike Tyson’s old sparring partner believes Joshua made tough work of a fight who should have been taken care of in both contests.
The first saw Joshua dropped four times and exposed. Whilst the second was a clear opportunity to make a statement against a massively out-of-shape title holder, according to the boxing pundit.
Joshua’s failure to gain a KO revenge opposite a 20-stone Ruiz garnered criticism from McCrory when speaking to talkSPORT‘s Jim White and Natalie Sawyer.
“He made an ordinary fighter look dangerous. At the end of the day, he was in the ring with a little fat bloke,” pointed out McCrory.
“I’m not taking too much away from Ruiz Jr, but he was badly out of shape. Joshua made him look like some sort of monster.
“This wasn’t Mike Tyson, this wasn’t George Foreman. You’ve got to put it in context of who he beat.”
FRAIL
On Joshua adopting the Klitschko-like jab, grab and hold technique following mentoring from the Ukrainian, McCrory added: “There looked to be so much frailty around Joshua.
“Anytime he got in close quarters he grabbed because it looked like he would get hurt at any time.
“I thought he’d pepper him with a jab, step in and take him out. But his confidence didn’t look there. Any time they came close he tied them up. He wasn’t in with a super danger man!
“If you weren’t a boxing fan and you looked at the TV screen, you would say ‘is this a joke?’ You’ve got one super athlete at 6ft 6in and one fella who is badly out of shape.
“Yet the big fella is all over the ring and running away, running away, running away.”
Since the victory, Joshua has been lauded for becoming a two-time belt holder by some. While others chose to state that the Briton should never have lost his titles in the first place.
The same could be said about Lennox Lewis, Mike Tyson and others throughout time, though, as AJ joined an elite band of heavyweights.
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