Joshua External Issues?!

Hi everyone

First up, congratulations to Andy Ruiz. Wow, what a story - and a great guy and fighter. Best of luck to him in future.

Anyway - my main point was this (apologies if anyone has already brought this up - there’s a million threads to go through!). I have watched the fight several times now, and I can’t shake the thought that there were bad omens from the start.
Firstly - Joshua was very late leaving his dressing room. He’s been a headline fighter for years now, with huge productions. Why would he ever be late like that?
Secondly - when he did come out to the ring, he looked nothing like the poised and collected fighter we all know. He was clearly agitated - chewing his gumshield relentlessly and popping it in and out of his mouth (why did he even have it in?), eyes darting about from left to right, leaning his arms on the ropes etc - really unusual stuff. He usually just looks stoic and unflappable and unreadable.

I was texting a friend at the time saying, WTF is going on with him? It was like a different guy altogether.

Now, as for the actual fight - I think he assumed Ruiz was hurt and went in gung ho to finish him, probably feeling some pressure after the Wilder/Breazeale blowout to make it an early night - and like in the Wlad fight shot his proverbial load and got caught and never recovered. I’ve been hit in that spot behind the ear before and it’s a totally disorientating feeling, like a twilight zone vibe. And he never got back into it - that I can understand. But what was going on beforehand? Did the pressure just get to him? Did he take Ruiz lightly (unlikely)? - it seemed to me he was in some sort of crisis. His late leaving and his really bizarre body language pre fight is the thing that I am most confused about - nothing that happened during the fight. It was just like a different person.

Anyone got any theories?

Again, great work by Ruiz though with the historic upset. Guy should be undefeated really. I think this upset is more akin to Lewis-McCall. I think comparing it to the Douglas win is selling Andy short. People who knew Ruiz knew that he was in this fight - just bull**** media hot takes cos of Ruiz’s physique.

 

It’s not so much The in fight performance that I’m confused about - he was beaten IMO by trying to force the KO to make a statement, and just like in the Wlad fight overexerted himself and got caught. This time he never recovered due to the nature of that shot. It’s easier to understand what happened in ring.

But the pre fight stuff is the curious thing - he just seemed so genuinely almost unrecognisable. Late, agitated, weird gumshield stuff, chewing and popping it in and out - you would’ve thought he would want to look cool and steely on his US debut, not crazy and twitchy with his gumshield hanging out during the intros.

And then his dad yelling at Hearn afterwards. Was some really weird stuff going on SEPARATE from the fight. Not taking anything away from ruiz here.

 

Yes yes, very constructive. Thanks for enlightening me here.

Look, I said I’m not taking anything away from Ruiz - I’m a boxing fan first and a fighter supporter second. The inring stuff isn’t that hard to understand.

My questions were due to the anomalies primarily before the fight. And after the fight I was reminded about his dad kicking off with Hearn.

This is nothing to do with defending or justifying anything - I’m not into these childish exchanges. Just more a thread wondering if anyone else had noticed the same things and what their opinions were. It was noticeable to me pre fight and played on my mind when rewatching.

 

Hi - this as the case may be, is not the point of this thread. There’s a million threads debating and deconstructing the infight action. All credit to Ruiz.

This is a thread about whether people noticed anything in Joshua personally before and to a lesser degree after the fight. His demeanour was so strikingly different pre fight that I thought it warranted a separate thread for those who wanted to discuss this rather than having to sift through a million threads that have mainly devolved into partisan trolling.

Please don’t turn this thread into another troll thread. I just want to have a discussion about what I think is a relevant element of last nights drama.

 

Not what this thread is about. But thanks for the bad vibes.

If you wanna troll and gloat etc there are numerous threads that are in the mire already.

Was just looking for input as to Joshua’s unusual demeanour. I wondered if I was the only one who clocked it at the beginning of the fight.