I genuinely believe it is THAT simple. No need for anyone to over complicate this issue, this is the reason he lost. Joshua is used to imposing his will, his power and his intimidation factor in those exchanges and flurries when he goes in for the kill. He has done it nearly 20 times and it's all he knows. He CHOSE not to do it in the Parker fight before hand, but with Ruiz that was his gameplan, and even people like Chisora told him... don't mess around with this guy just get him out of there quick. Now the first time he did it he knocked down Ruiz, and Ruiz was stunned at that point being in a new situation himself, on canvas first time. Joshua walked away thinking yeah another victory, the same way he typically does it, Hearn, the crowd, and myself thought the same thing... it's over. But then Ruiz got up, and imposed his own will on AJ in the second exchange, and proved that he is the fast, more accurate puncher with the bigger heart A LA Mexican style. Joshua was outgunned, completely. And if you look at this facial reactions you can tell he wanted to go toe to toe to win the exchange because he was gritting his teeth as if to say "I ****ing punch harder than you, I am the man, you are going down" But Ruiz denied him, once, twice, three times, and 4. It was AJ that went to Ruiz and not the other way around. AJ couldn't handle his pride and soul getting stripped away on the exchange, he couldn't find it in himself to go on the backfoot and jab like Parker did. He just HAD to get the better of Ruiz, until he got broken down mentally, knowing this entire contest was going pear shaped, not as planned, and that the whole world is witnessing the disaster unfold. The key difference here is that when Ruiz went down he got up and composed himself, he did that all night, in each exchange he was patient, he even gave Joshua time to recover. Joshua was the hasty one, the impatient one, lost his mental edge, composure... everything. Ruiz was as cool as cucumber, finding his target everytime on the exchange, straight down the pipe. He felt at home. AJ got the dog beaten out of him, and he will never be the same man again. What were his post fight thoughts on Ruiz Jr? Yeah "Ruiz Jr is really good at standing his ground" translation, I got outgunned, and outhearted and couldn't go toe to toe with Ruiz or impose my will.
There was clearly something not right. Who knows what. The only way we will know is if something comes out or if Joshua comprehensively wins the rematch. Or perhaps Andy just had his number.
Really like some of these replies: studied, reasoned, balanced, intelligent. Makes me wonder how on earth AJs team got it so very wrong! His corner advice was appalling, his conditioning apparently terrible, their gameplan was abject. Aside from successfully turning up to the press conferences, I'm struggling to see where they did anything right... In my view, one test as to whether they see it as just an off night is if he doesn't make major changes to his team. If he does get rid of McCracken, it's a sure sign there's a systemic issue.
He laid off the PEDs for his US debut. He didnt want to chance getting caught. He was not as blown up as usual.
It was mostly due to what Ruiz did: get in, pay the price to stay in the pocket, counter everything every time. AJ absolutely hated it and he simply didn´t recover from the first KD. So respect and congrats to Andy.
It doesn't help that Mcracken didn't show up in the post fight conference, that was **** poor ****ing taste. He needed to show some cahonas as the trainer, get in there, and talk about what went wrong. Clear up some confusion.
After Joshua knocked down Ruiz he went for the knock out in an attempt to look as impressive as Wilder and he got caught with a big shot himself from which he didn't recover for the rest of the fight. That's it really. I think he was in shape. Perhaps he underestimated Ruiz in that he considered him merely a prop to show off his greatness to the American public. If so, that's obviously a huge mistake to make. Especially when the other guy can punch as well. But fighters are people too and thus make mistakes.
Ruiz's hand speed and inability to recover from shots. I don't think he took Ruiz lightly per se, he just got blitzed with hand speed. Dassit. That's one of the many reasons I believe Fury would beat him, far better hands, far better feet and Fury is just simply better at commanding space and distance inside the ring.
