I wonder how this sets on minds of those who don't follow boxing. Would a pudgy champ beating some sculptured dude bring in more fans.
perhaps obese people will create a cult of ruiz, and fight for the right to be fat will begin. Cult counterculture of the chubby. Ruiz is on the way to diabetes early so its for him to worry about being an amputee when hes 50, it wont bother anyone else as much as it will him every day of his middle age life perhaps even in a wheelchair due to diabetes (i hope not but it may well happen). i dont mean you if you are obese, Vikingman.
Well it was a voluntary defence so of course there is a rematch clause. Is it the right call though? Ruiz walked him down and was able to land his shots pretty easily and now knows he can hurt AJ
I rewatched the fight again. My observations - AJ's 247 plus pound physique is not sustainable and certainly not in a long fight where he has to go 12 rounds or if he is facing an opponent who will press him. Eventually his pathetic stamina will catch up to him in the mid to later rounds leading him to be low volume, his stamina also becomes an issue much earlier when he is pressed by good fighters - Everyone knows his Chin is poor. It is a major reason why he became extremely gun shy from round 3 onwards when Ruiz hit him. He completely lost all composure - AJ's hand speed looked very inferior - AJ was throwing one big bomb and not able to put together anything more than a 2 punch combination. Ruiz in comparison was getting 5-6 punches off in 1-2 seconds - AJ's jab is very poor, it didn't discourage Ruiz at all who wasn't discouraged to come inside - AJ showed zero ability to fight on the back foot, he tried to throw single shots and jabs from the backfoot but they had no sting or power Sure AJ in the rematch may opt for a new trainer, may cut down his weight to 230-233 lbs, may try his best to fight like Wlad but will he be successful doing that at 233 lbs in comparison to 248 lbs and most importantly does he have the discipline to consistently fight like that? I dont think so. People talking about the rematch being in the UK being an advantage for him but i don't see how any sort of training, coaching or geography can make up for a very poor set of whiskers. I doubt whether AJ will be the same fighter again. He was exposed before but he got humiliated by an unknown boxer and its about time the rest of the world and the commercial sponsors, boxing promoters give the likes of Wilder and Fury far more respect, attention and money than they are currently getting. - AJ had zero presence of mind, no idea on how to use his weight, size to his advantage and to tie Ruiz up like the likes of Lewis, Wlad did in their primes against shorter inside fighting guys - Ruiz actually slowed down AJ with his body punching, the body punching made AJ fatigue earlier than usual and made him bring his hands down as well which opened up the head shots. Very Tysonisque by Ruiz - Contrast the knockdowns, when Ruiz got knockdown, his eyes still showed composure, he immediately got back up, did not panic for a second and countered AJ
People forget that Badou Jack was dropped multiple times and stopped inside a round by Derek Edwards. After seeing that myself and everyone else thought he was chinny and exposed. Then look at the trajectory his career went in. Robbed or drawn in a handful of of FOTY contender fights and won titles to become a two weight champ. AJ can come back, plus this is HW boxing Lewis, Holyfield, Klitschko, the list goes on of heavyweight champion's who have bounced back stronger. I just hope that AJ doesn't rush into the rematch the way David Price did against Thompson.
