JUST WATCHED it WITH the SOUND OFF

Spot on, good post.

AJ is terrible at holding/clinching, every time he tried he gave Ruiz a chance and like you say it’s a good thing.

AJ took some good shots like he did against Klitschko when he got caught flush plenty of times. He doesn’t have an iron chin but it’s nowhere near what people make out.

 

To be fair I think anyone would have a hard time clinching Ruiz, fat is a lot harder to grip onto than muscle, especially covered in sweat.

 

Ruiz was silly putting on that amount of weight. Same outcome of the first fight if he did come in lighter. Joshua was running for dear life. He was terrified of the blobs big belly!

 

agreed r.e his chin. I've said for years the chin isn't the problem, its the gas tank. Look at some of those shots he took off of Klitschko after he got dropped, some HUGE shots landed on him, including a massive uppercut that he literally ducked onto iirc, and he barely moved, he just looked shattered.

 

I said for the rematch that I would have AJ "hopping around more" and i got laughed out of the forum

Looks like it worked for him

 

I thought his chin was shaky. Looked like be was hurt pretty badly every time he was caught clean.

 

Watching with the sound off just allows you to convince yourself you are seeing what you want to see

 

Yeah he had the Frank Bruno eyes every time he was touched

 

The assumption with a lot of people is AJ just ran as well, but in reality he was landing some decent punches and did try follow up attacks but it was clear Ruiz wasn’t hurt enough so he went straight back to the game plan. I think he would have tried to attack more if the pressure wasn’t so intense for this one. He looked very good, he changed in a way a lot of fighters were never able to.

 

I actually noticed the exact same things
Only never thought AJ had a bad chin just think the last fight was one of those times where a certain shot causes a certain effect. I think if Joshua and Ruiz fought 10 times that Joshua would win 8/9 of those times.
I would say one thing that I disagree with, with you here in that I also agree Joshua doesn't tie his opponents up but think it would be a good asset to add to his game so as to preserve energy and wear opposition down

 

And it’s also harder to grab, grapple and hold a guy with a much lower centre of gravity

 

Without the sound, I see a number 10 inside the ring. 1 being AJ and 0 being the fat guy...

 

Unless you lean down on their backs.

But Ruiz is good at fighting out of the clinch , he uses a forearm for space , often against Ajs neck.. He's just just a good inside fighter in general. The only guys to beat him used a lot of leg movement.