Fight fans know Teddy Atlas is never, ever a man to be shy about coming out with what he thinks. There’s no sugar-coating things when Atlas gives his opinion on anything boxing related. And it’s fair to say Atlas, speaking on his podcast The Fight, has given former two-time heavyweight champ Anthony Joshua and his recent performance against late sub Robert Helenius a scathing review.
Atlas spoke about AJ’s reluctance to let his hands go, he spoke about Joshua’s tentativeness, and Atlas was absolutely offended by Joshua’s “My back hurts because I’ve been carrying the heavyweight division” statement.
Here’s what Atlas had to say on his podcast yesterday.
“He was fighting a guy who two fight’s ago was knocked out in one round by Deontay Wilder,” Atlas said of AJ. “Wilder’s people hand-picked him to come back after a year’s layoff, after being KO’d and badly beaten up by Tyson Fury. It’s the same reason Joshua’s people okayed him to be a replacement for [Dillian] Whyte. I know you guys [the British fans] want him to be what you want him to be, but who has he ever beaten to have gained the stature that he’s been given over there? Charles Martin. A 288 pound [Andy] Ruiz in the rematch after he had knocked him out after taking the first fight at two week’s notice. A cruiserweight beat him two time, Usyk, right? His only real win was over a forty-plus Wladimir Klitschko.
“For that resume, he has the gall to say that his back was hurting him from carrying the heavyweight division! Are you kidding me? How you people [the UK media] sat there and allowed him to say that……Joshua was tentative, it took him seven rounds to finally get up the confidence to simply move forward with a couple of jabs and throw the right hand. He could’ve done that same thing at any time. He had a very tall guy, who keeps his head in the air like a lantern in a storm. He pulls back straight, presenting this huge target to hit. I don’t know what else to say. It took his seven rounds to simply do that against a guy they brought in to be knocked out.”
Ouch.
Atlas, however, makes some great points. Yes, the KO AJ finally scored got him some nice highlight reel material, but the six previous rounds were, we must say it, pretty darn awful. And as for Joshua’s resume, is Atlas right when he says it’s pretty slim? Joshua’s supporters will fire back at Atlas and say Joshua also beat Joseph Parker and Alexander Povetkin, but it’s true – Joshua’s biggest win, the win that turned him into a star, came against a past his best Klitschko.
Have we UK fans and media been guilty of building Joshua up way too high? Teddy Atlas sure thinks so. Now, going into (we think) a Joshua Vs. Wilder fight, plenty of people agree with Atlas when he says Wilder will be “less tentative than Joshua and he’s gonna land the punch first.”
Atlas says the talked of fight will come down to who lands first wins. And Atlas says this will be Wilder. Basing things on Joshua’s most recent, tentative performance, it really is tough to disagree.
