Exposed, blah blah blah. You would have said the same back in '95 after Lewis lost to McCall. McCall was just as much a fringe contender as Ruiz. Lewis came back to establish one of the best resumes in heavyweight history. I'm not saying Joshua will do the same. He may come back stronger, he may fade into an Audley level of oblivion. I didn't like the way he took to being under pressure in this fight. He looked absolutely lost, with only enough wherewithal to retain a nauseating amount of smugness in the face of adversity. In conversation with McCracken, who incidentally needs to retire, he sounded oblivious to the gravity of the situation. Yeah, he was **** tonight, and he got ****ed, but it doesn't spell the end of his career, nor does it negate what he has heretofore achieved. Boxing is unusual for a sport in that a loss is so often taken as a cataclysmic indictment of a sportsman's career. He can come again, and will.
Joshua said in the post fight interview they have an immediate rematch clause and will definitely be exercising it
I'm unsure whether Joshua and McCracken (and Hearn, for that matter) will have confidence to take rematch. If they do, they will want it at Cardiff or Wembley. I'd like to see it staged in Mexico City.
I thought it was more reminiscent of the Rahman loss. Different location, opponent clearly being looked over with all the attention on a guy the massive favourite isn't even fighting. Joshua's career to an extent hanging on how he deals with the rematch. But if he wins well it certainly won't mean this fight was some sort of 'exposure.'
He quit. For those saying anything can happen in heavy weight boxing etc, he quit. Wasnt floored by a huge punch, he quit.
People comparing it to Price Thompson, shows how important it is for good matcmaking. Joshua has been nursed into a superstar, multi millionaire world champ when he’s average.
Worrying signs here for AJ, he never recovered from the first knockdown. The writing was on the wall against both Whyte and Klit where he took a few rounds to recover from solid shots, but this was different. The moment after the 4th where he says to McCracken 'what did he catch me with' sounded to me like he didn't even know he'd fought a full round after the KD, then he asked something similar after the 5th. The way he went out was reminiscent of Mclellan and he was still slurring after the fight. They need to make sure they really take some time to check him over physically/neurologically because there's something not right. I wasn't that impressed with Ruiz. There were times when he boxed quite nicely, but I do think he got lucky with AJ completely failing to recover after the first KD and he still took another 4 rounds to get him out of there.
