Shane Mosley lost two in a row to Winky Wright and Vernon Forrest. It's not the end of the world for Joshua if he's willing to take 2-3 rebuilding fights should he lose again, but he needs that rematch now. Sometimes a man just can't get a grip of a certain style, he could have 10 'development fights' and not beat Ruiz in the future. Or he could have had an off night and righting the wrong will do wonders for his legacy and immediate earning potential.
Getting beaten up and knocked out twice in a row by a 260 pound heavyweight is a bit more of a problem than being technically outpointed by cute operators at 147/154 though. Yes, he can still come back should he lose again but there's a huge risk he wouldn't want to.
No way that he would risk tune up fights for him or indeed Ruiz. Imagine if Ruiz lost? His opponent wouldn't be subject to the AJ rematch clause and the belts could rapidly be taken beyond his grasp. He will go for the immediate rematch, that's the obviously move.
Yeah maybe not the closest analogy, but the point is, a second defeat doesn't mean it's the end of his career if (and it's a big if) he's willing to step down from the pinnacle and take on a year to two year rebuild. As you say though, it's about whether or not he has that desire after two losses in a row. As a general point though, we're too quick to write off fighters for losses these days. He's not a bum, but he's not the second coming of Lennox Lewis neither, and that was obvious long before his defeat.
Some great comments regarding should AJ take a tune up, personally no he should get straight back in there with Ruiz, but he needs to change himself before he does, he needs to go back to good old fashioned basics. If not Ruiz beats him again, and to be fair the first fight it looked like Ruiz used AJ as a tune up such was the manner in which he got beat...
HAHAHHAH Gorman gives AJ nightmares. I do hope that is a wind up.. So after losing to Ruiz, AJ is now at British level?
So out of all that post the only bit you disagree with is the Gorman bit??answered your own question i think then?Put it this way id like to see him fight Kabayel .....Rumours are AJ been getting flattened left right and centre in sparring..His cojones are gone He has been poor since in my opinion cutting down /out PEDs He went life and death with Vlad who was on a 2 year holiday then been pretty average since . He got helped out big time by the ref against Parker and Takam ffs and 40 year old Povetkin gave him a big scare...
I disagreed with a lot of it to be honest but the Gorman part just made me laugh. Parker and Takam didn't give him nightmares. Povetkin dipped AJs legs once or twice before ending up on his back not knowing what day it was. I appreciate you might not be AJs biggest fan but at least look at things objectively. Also I don't think there has been rumours that AJ has been getting flattened left right and centre, that might be a bit of an exaggeration. AJ should have picked Kash Ali before the rematch in a true British 50/50.
I might be Hyperbolling a bit but i seriously think we have had the wool pulled over our eyes with AJ..... Every Heavyweight now knows if you hit him theres a good chance he stays hit...He is in for slugfests in every fight now I was a massive fan of AJ but he got to a level and has stayed there....He will never own another belt unless its another gift like a Charles Martin scenario
I never bought into the Anthony Joshua hype but I wouldn't write him off just yet. He clearly has to be regarded as being very capable of beating most of the top 10 heavyweights, until proven otherwise. Yes, he's vulnerable and robotic. But he's also devastating offensively. Ruiz took him apart, for sure, and I'd reckon Ruiz to beat him in a rematch too .... but from where I was sat Ruiz needed a very good chin to do so. Joshua, despite being beat up and outboxed, was landing some very good shots that would be enough to bail him out against some guys with pretty big reputations.
That right hand in the 3rd after the knockdown...how did Ruiz’s head stay on? And once again, in the 7th was a huge shot from Joshua, yet both times instead of folding, Ruiz saw the opportunity and had him exactly where he wanted which was wide open in the pocket. I was a fan of Ruiz before the fight but no matter what happens in the rematch, i’ll continue to cheer him on. He’s a quality boxer with a very good skill set.
