is Andy Ruiz correct when he says Anthony Joshua lacks boxing skills ?

Maybe you say that on a tactical level he has a lot of skill, but on a strategic level, he lacks ring intelligence?

Lennox has a similar build but was exactly the opposite. He boxed Tua, fought Briggs, blitzed Ruddock and Golata, etc. Always had the right gameplan.

 

Do you see the conflict between the two statements in bold?

This is what I'm seeing a lot of on the forum lately. People are quick to say that Joshua is a technically sound fighter with good fundamentals, then they quietly say "but yeah he leaves himself open a lot and doesn't have a good jab".

???

He doesn't have good fundamentals for an elite fighter and that's why he has four losses.

Also is this the ONLY fighter in the history of the sport to have so many people make excuses for him saying he was "concussed" and forgot how to box? What the hell?

 

No, he has good skills and is technically sound. His problems are mental, he can't stay focused because he overthinks and freezes up at times. That also affects his stamina.

 

Joshua rise to stardom wasn’t because of his slick boxing but because he was flattening people in fights. So this isn’t some big revelation.

 

There are degrees of boxing skills, but AJ has boxing skills. Ruiz shouldn’t talk so much cause his boxing skills aren’t that great either. He got shut out by AJ in the rematch.

If Usyk is a 10, then AJ is about a 7. Ruiz is also about a 7. AJ has a lot of physical gifts that can enhance those skills.

Sometimes you don’t need elite boxing skills to have a successful boxing career. Look at Trinidad, Frazier and Mayorga.

 

You have put words in my mouth here. I didn't say AJ had elite fundamentals nor am I an AJ fan. Also I never said AJ didn't have a good jab - again I think it is a pretty good jab if not elite.

In a boxer, or most athletes in sports in general really - there are basically three main attributes in an athlete: Technical ability, mental ability and physical ability. When I say fundamentals I am mainly referring to the technical side rather than the mental side - but I could have been a bit clearer though.

But yes - I think AJ is quite strong on the technical side and more so on the physical side but is quite flawed on the mental side.

 

It pains me to defend AJ.
But I think he has better skills than Ruiz, actually.
AJ was drilled and schooled with a ton a money behind those teams. This isn't rocket science to learn and he was groomed pretty well.
Ruiz would get smashed by Wlad, Povetkin even the old versions. And he'd definitely get destroyed by Usyk.

 

He has the tools, he just doesn't know how to use them. You give a guy a chisel and a hammer and he can make a great sculpture from a block of marble, another guy would make a beautiful piece of furniture, AJ w choses the cut his toenails.

 

Agreed.

Lennox had Steward, AJ had "brilliant AJ!!"

 

AJ’s problem is he has an extremely low Ring IQ and he has a Glass Jaw. That’s a bad combination.

 

Just like Fury and Dubois to be honest. Everyone thinks they will maul Usyk using their size but it's a completely different situation when they actually are in the ring with him.

 

AJ is a fraud a manufactured bodybuilding bum. Quite simply.

 

I wouldn't say it's extremely low. It's definitely not good but he at least is aware when he's made a mistake and does actually try to change, it's just he's not smart enough to know what he has to do beyond the most basic tactics.

After the loss to Ruiz he or at least his team knew to box from range and keep the shorter Ruiz from countering his attacks and minimise opportunities for Ruiz to throw by maintaining distance.

But against Usyk they chose the wrong strategy in the first fight and beyond throwing the body shots didn't seem to have anything beyond that to beat Usyk in the rematch. Seeing him also abandon the jab in the rematch was in my opinion was plain dumb.

I'd say his ring IQ is like a 4 or 5 out of ten. Not a complete imbecile like Amir Khan for example who seemed incapable to learn from mistakes of the past and repeated the same mistakes over and over again, but far from an intelligent or even above average ring IQ.

But him spamming right hands against Dubois might be one of the dumbest things I've seen, so maybe I'm over rating his ring IQ. Lets see how he bounces back, if he can bounce back that is.

 

Usyk is the best "little guy" I've seen at completely neutralizing a big guy's size. He's too slippery for any of the typical tactics to work on him.

 

Let's hear the GOAT's opinion on this:

This content is protected