Mark my words I think we are going to see the best ever version of Joshua . I do think Ruiz has been built up to be some kind of monster , truth is he isn't as good as he is being made out to be. Unfortunately after Joshua wins we are going to get the typical sky creaming commentary which will be unbearable but I truly believe a focused Joshua fighting for his career is going to be to much for Ruiz, anybody who thinks Ruiz totally steam rolls Joshua are in for a huge shock, the fact Joshua made it to the 7th is quite remarkable really considering he was fighting with concussion for 15 minutes, anybody who has had concussion will tell you that it's causes severe dizziness, nausea, lack of balance, confusion and lack of coordination. The fact that it took Ruiz 4 rounds to finish joshua tells me that his power is not as good as everybody thinks. Joshua with everything going on still managed to get up from every knock down, if he would have been in that situation against wilder, povetkin or Whyte it would have been over straight away. I'm not naive enough to think that Ruiz can't win it's heavyweight boxing but if that punch in the 3rd had landed 2 inches lower I don't think he would have won he was fighting for is life swinging wildly and got lucky the punch landed where it did he certainly didn't mean it to land where it did . Joshua within 4 easy money!
This concussion narrative has really gathered steam. Fighters do suffer concussions (of various levels) through fights when they get punched in the head...a huge part of the sport is to concuss your opponent. We might not label it in that way but ultimately the idea is to hurt your opponent mostly to the head so that they can’t continue the fight. Ruiz punched Joshua in the head, it wasn’t lucky, he was calm and composed in the storm and landed a great shot. He’s not the biggest single puncher but he throws in bunches with great speed. For every single shot AJ can throw, he can throw 3...and he throws with you. It’s also worth adding that Ruiz showed patience and systematically dismantled Joshua over the subsequent rounds with fantastic body shots. He was excellent. Let’s not do him a disservice by saying it was a lucky shot.
Could go either way, changed my mind countless times regarding this outcome. Even Hunter vs Povetkin I am not sure but slight leaning toward Hunter. The rest of the fights on the card are one sided.
AJ is clearly capable of winning this fight and by stoppage, but it’s whether he’s recovered psychologically for me. How is he going to react when Ruiz lands a big one? Because Ruiz is going to jump all over him.
One things for sure....i reckon rob mckracken will have left no stone unturned in the training camp. No ones mentioned it but he done a good job with froch for the groves rematch. Froch was a lot better prepared for it....pretty sure rob holed him up down in shieffield and worked tirelessly with him for the rematch. I still think his times up with joshua tho....think his style of coachings affecting joshuas confidence. He pretty much strives for perfection from him in training....your looking at this massive powerful bloke thats not a tremendous boxer....being told relentlesly to box. Its a bit like come on rob...theres more than one way to skin a cat. Even tho robs a great coach who,s done a good job with joshua.
I think the reverse is true, Ruiz could well finish Joshua within 4 rounds. He knows he can hurt and finish AJ, if he hurts him again it’s likely he will be a lot more confident going for the finish if he thinks he can get it.
I think this fight will be a complete reversal of the 1st fight where Ruiz will come hunting, with confidence from the very off, and will walk straight onto a heavy Joshua counter. Joshua would be sensible to fight behind his jab and frustrate Ruiz. Use his natural advantages. Ruiz, I feel, cannot fight this way (as AJ above) as it would be a Joshua UD all night long and will instead come forward which is where he going to walk into a massive Joshua shot. Feel free to flame me post fight if I am wrong. Joshua either by a devastating KO or a safe sensible but boring UD.
That's the biggest mistake Joshua can make. He threw the kitchen sink at Ruiz in the 5th round, and the blob kept coming forward. He hasn't got that power to drop Ruiz without getting caught by a short counter. The knockdown he caught Ruiz with, was simply because he was off balance. Joshua will get stopped again if he tries to take him out early or mid rounds. Needs to wear him down, and cut him up first. I think that's highly debatable too, because his long range punches are actually quite a lot weaker.
