If the referee tells a fighter to step forward and the fighter doesnt do it, he is forced to stop the fight, he has no other choice no matter what. EDIT: maybe the ref didnt ask him for walking to him....
AJ was on the verge of getting KTFO, so he did everything he could to make the stoppage look controversial. The fact is, AJ was getting the stuffing beat out of him. Completely outboxed. Knocked down 4 times.
AJ clearly didn't want no more, you could tell by his negtive body language at the end of the 6th that AJ was starting to check out, after the two KD's he checked out completely. Partially aided by the 4 knockdowns that discombobulated the **** out of him.
Iirc ref asked him if he still wanted to fight. Told him to step forward. And instead AJ stepped back and relaxed on the ropes like as if the ref never asked him to come forward to continue the fight.
Asked AJ to step forward and he just stepped back and nodded. Let’s also point out he had been dropped 4 times and 2 times in that round. Ruiz would have just dropped him again had he been allowed to continue
He spat his mouth piece out when the going got tough, same as he did in the Klitschko fight, and clung to the ropes. He was done.
AJ sat on the ropes and looked gassed, hurt and troubled. If it was KD one i might argue but after the other KD's it was a just stoppage
AJ wasn't robbed, he was dropped 4 times. Let that sink in, 4 times and on the forth occasion he didn't give the referee a reason to let him continue fighting. Also don't forget, AJ went down for the 4th time and spat out his gumshield, he didn't want it anymore, I don't like saying it but I thought it was a little bit of a "quit job".
AJ got knocked down for the second time in the round. He then spat out his shield when he was down to buy extra time, gets up and walks straight to his corner and puts his arms across the ropes. When the ref asks "Do you want to continue?" (or words to that effect) Joshua only says "yes" but does NOT lift his arms of the ropes, raise both gloves and nod his head (as every fighter does at this command) or even lift his back off the ropes (he was leaning on the corner with his arms across the ropes). The only thing Joshua done was say "yes". This is not enough and Joshua body language was of a defeated man that does not want anymore . I guess after Andy Ruiz seen Josh Kelly and Katie Taylor getting very dubious decisions in their favour he just said to the world: NO WAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYY JOSE!
That ref might have saved AJ from a big KO had that gone on. I'll have to watch it again but I thought I seen AJ spit out his mouthpiece before getting up.