Klitschko lectures Joshua about his “big muscles”

Boxingnews24.com

By Scott Gilfoid: Wladimir Klitschko notes that his opponent Anthony Joshua has a lot of big muscles from his hard training in the gym, but he wants him to know that boxing is the “sweet science” and it’s just about having a lot of muscles. Klitschko, 41, thinks Jacobs has put on all these huge muscles to try and feel confident. But he wants him to know that the sport is science rather than just packing on a ton of muscles.

The fighters in the past that have tried win based off brute strength have been beaten one after another. The fighters that often succeed are the one that think, use speed, and agility to win. Joshua started out his pro career 4 years ago at a little 220 in 2013. Joshua was faster back then, limber, and able to move around the ring. Joshua now weighs 250, and looks more like a body builder or one of the big professional wrestlers, and he’s slower than he was. Comparing Joshua now to when he won the Olympics in 2012 is like looking at 2 different people.

Joshua is nothing like what he was before. It reminds me of the transformation that Cuban heavyweight Odlanier Solid went through after winning a gold medal in the 2004 Olympics while weighing 200 pounds. Solid bulked up to the 250s after he turned pro, and he’s had nowhere near the same success as he had at the amateur level.

“AJ has a lot of energy, he’s young, he wants to be explosive, he has these big muscles that bring him confidence and he just wants to demolish people right in front of him,” said Wladimir to skysports.com. ”That’s what it is, it gives him a lot of confidence, but did you hear about boxing being a sweet science? He can be a CrossFit champion actually, a CrossFit world champion. I think he has great capability of it. CrossFit became really popular and there are a lot of boxers doing it. But CrossFit is not boxing.”

Ouch, that hurts. Wladimir is really telling Joshua like it is, isn’t he? Wladimir is letting Joshua know that he’s going in the wrong direction with his boxing training.

When I see Joshua working out, it looks to me like he’s taken his focus off boxing and gotten into recreational weight training/body building. Joshua is doing training that may ultimately prove detrimental to his profession. It’s like how successful football players sometimes mess up their own careers by going on crazy diets that limit how many calories they take in. They end up too thin.

In Joshua’s case, he seems to be bulking up for the wrong reasons. He’s put on all this muscle, which has slowed him down and could ultimately make it harder for his cardiovascular system to deal with. Boxing is an aerobic sport that requires a lot of oxygen and movement. Joshua seems to be building his body, as if he’s entering a sport where he’s only going to be competing for a short period of time. It’s worked for Joshua thus far because most of his fights are ending quickly. Part of the reason for that is Joshua is facing largely mediocre opposition right now.

The best guy that Joshua has fought during his 4-year pro career is Dillian Whyte, and he had an injured left shoulder. We saw how Joshua was gassed after just 2 rounds. Who can forget how tired Joshua was after being staggered in the 2nd round. It was just a stroke of luck on Joshua’s part that Whyte suffered a left shoulder injury in the 2nd round. Without that injury, you can bet that Whyte would have kept the pace of the fight going fast, and I’m not sure that Joshua would have been able to sustain that.

With all Joshua’s useless body building muscles, I can’t see him lasting too much longer as the IBF champion before he finds someone that he can’t knock out in the early rounds. Once Joshua fights someone that is still standing and forcing him to move his body builder’s frame around the ring at a fast pace, I think we’re going to see him tire out and get stopped. Joshua kind of reminds me of Frank Bruno, a former British heavyweight that was known for his huge muscles and his many knockouts. Bruno was frequently very good early in his fights, but he struggled when he fought guys that could take him into the later rounds. He also had problems with guys that had a lot of hand speed and power like Mike Tyson.

“Every person would have got these big muscles,” said Klitschko. “It gives you confidence and you really can smash if you hit the heavy bag, or the person in front of you. Boxing is sweet science. The vicious boxers were conquered,” said Klitschko.

I totally agree with Wladimir. I think Joshua has got some kind of self-belief where he thinks he’s got to have the biggest muscles so that he can be confident about himself inside the ring. It’s a mentality where guys think they’ve got to put on as much muscle as possible in order to ward off a perceived threat. What happens is they end up becoming so muscular that they’re not agile enough to deal with their opponents. The weight limit for the heavyweight division is limitless, so Joshua can put on much muscle weight as he wants, but he’s only hurting himself by bulking up the way he has. Unfortunately, I don’t know if Jacobs can even get back to where the starting point was for him when he first turned pro. If Jacobs were to trim down to 220 or 225, I think he would be weakened by the process, and he’d be vulnerable. He might wind up having better speed and stamina if he goes back down to 225, but I think he’d be weaker losing 25 pounds of muscle.

It’s going to be interesting to see how much heavier Joshua gets in his career. When you see a fighter bulking up 25 pounds in just 3 years the way Joshua has, it makes you wonder how much more will they put on. I’d like to think that Joshua will stop at 250, but in looking at him training at a furious pace, I can definitely see him shooting up to 260 even 270 before long. I don’t see Joshua being able to stay on top weighing 260 and especially 270. That’s just way too heavy for the sweet science.

Wladimir could give Joshua huge headaches in their fight on April 29 if he’s stays on the outside and jabs all night long. If Wladimir moves around the ring constantly, it’s going to keep Joshua from being able to set his feet and throw his right hand power shots. Joshua’s jab is not as good as Wladimir’s. It’s not even close.

Wladimir has a much better jab. If I’m Wladimir, I would jab Joshua all night long. I wouldn’t take any chances until I closed both of his eyes with my jabs. Once his face is puffed up, and he’s laboring for breath in the later rounds, I would then move in to finish him off. Wladimir need to drag Jacobs into the deep waters by jabbing him and moving a lot, because body builder type fighters are strong in the early rounds. When they have to drag all those muscles around for 12 rounds, they get tired, especially when they’re not accustomed to carrying all that weight for a long duration.