Agree and disagree. The folks on here spamming "he's the new David price" are pure trolls, you don't come even close to coming how far he has if you are David Price. He does however have some glaring flaws, and his punch resistance really concerns me, I still don't think Ruiz is a big puncher, we'll certainly hit hit Parker with similar combos and didn't have him rocking and rolling. That said, remember when Wlad had a "glass chin" then later In his career took some big shots from time to time and held them ok? Similar to AJ he can sometimes absorb them, other times not, that's down to positioning. What's for damn sure is AJ can NEVER bend his knees and start going hell for leather in the pocket, EVER again. AJ can come back, he has the physical attributes and ability to beat Ruiz Jr, but weather he does or not is going to depend on his mentality. Personally I can't call the rematch either way.
Oh ok, so Joshua will develop a better jab within 6 months, will be less stationary & robotic as well and develop great footwork? Not a chance. Ruiz is the better technician and will find a way to get on the inside again. Ruiz' fast hands will always be a problem for Joshua. That doesn't mean he will beat AJ in the rematch but Ruiz should be the favorite after his destructive display on Saturday.
That is the part I agree with, he could box sensible and win on his height and reach advantage, he doesn't need to trade and doesn't need to let Ruiz get on the inside as often and as easily as he did.
Genuinely unbelievable the way people are talking about AJ, as if he hasn't won 3 world titles beaten plenty top 10 opposition and won an olympic gold. I have seen more from his first 22 fights than I see in his last 1 to be convinced he could easily beat Ruiz on another day. He doesn't need to develop an unbelievable jab, he just needs to actually throw a half decent jab and double jab to keep Ruiz at bay. Once again, doesn't need to develop great footwork, just moving his feet for a start would be a massive help. It is incomprehensible how awful AJ was on Saturday, there is no way he will be anywhere near as pedestrian and **** scared as he was on Saturday. If he gets back to basics and keep Ruiz long, his athleticism will do the rest. Also, can we stop talking like Ruiz is a killer please, there are at least 10 other heavyweights that make very light work of him in my opinion.
Why do you think he won't be the same as he was on Saturday. I don't think it benefits well mentally fighting a guy who dropped you 4 times.
I think you’re doing the opposite mate by downplaying just how good Ruiz was. Joshua has done fantastic in his career up to now. However, we can pick holes in his previous fights... Povetkin was a quality win but it wasn’t prime Povetkin, it was a 39 year old version. Klitschko was a great fight, but he was 41, 18 months of ring rust and coming off the back of a defeat. Parker was a good solid win, but the referee would not let either of them engage & ruined the fight. Takam was a gatekeeper fighter. Made heavy work of punch bag Breazeale. Martin was a pudding. He has been knocked down, he has shown vulnerabilities especially to the left hand. We’ve had to listen to the talk about him being the new Tyson, the new Ali, the new Holmes etc etc. A percentage of us on here never bought into it, we think he’s a pretty good fighter but not to the level that was built up by some. The defeat validated our opinions over the past few years and so that’s why people are perhaps enjoying it too much. He’s the second best heavyweight in the U.K. probably 3rd best in the world. That’s still pretty impressive.
The favourite? Ruiz? He fought the fight of his life, the only time most people on here will have seen him fight - yet now he’s the heavyweight Canelo! Joshua had a massive off night, but now you talk as if he needs to retrain from scratch! How did he get his wins against Klitschko, Whyte, Povetkin, Parker - by fluke? People need to get off the ‘Joshua hate waggon’ and get a reality check. The reality is Joshua has been wobbled throughout his career - he’s overcome this problem by producing devastating knocking outs. With his head right, a little less weight to increase his speed - he ll be a firm favourite to land a big one first in the re-match.
Yup If he stays composed, that combo that dropped ruiz is going to be there, he's not hard to hit. Let him get up from it and get back behind the jab and wait until he's open again He will get up from it once, he won't get up from it 4-5 times
He landed a big one first against Ruiz as well. Im not a Joshua hater, not at all. People need to realize this wasn't a fluke, but a beatdown. I would perhaps still favour Joshua if he was KO'd cold with one shot, that can happen. But Ruiz looked just a level higher which makes me believe he should be favourite in the rematch as well.
This is bang on. ‘It was a blip’, ‘he’ll come back more determined’, ‘he just needs to keep him on the end of his jab’ etc etc. The disrespect shown towards Ruiz is poor. I’ve watched a number of his fights, I didn’t think he could win because of his stature, but I believed he could cause him problems. Turns out he’s improved loads. His performance in April was also excellent. He has one very narrow loss on his record. We’re supposed to be proper boxing fans on here who break down fights, not suckers for hype. Trust your own eyes not the mouths of promoters. Joshua could win the rematch but that was not a freak result, it was a boxing lesson from round 1-7. If AJ and his team accept that, then they can improve, but if they have the same thought process as some of the fans on here, they’ll get caught out again. Ruiz is a serious handful.
I reckon Joe Joyce would be better equipped to deal with a pressure fighter like Ruiz than Joshua would. He might be slow, but being built like Joshua, and 260 plus, he'd take everything Ruiz can throw and overwhelm in my opinion.
I genuinely didn't see anything that special from Ruiz. I also think he was walking forward with his gloves high with some head movement. If AJ gets behind the jab, the opening that he found in the 3rd will be there too many times through the fight for Ruiz to see the end - as long as he doesn't get messy on the inside for no reason. Ruiz didn't necessarily negotiate the openings he was just fighting fire with fire and just so happened he caught him behind the ear. The main point for me is are we going to downplay AJs career up to now just so we can try and find a way to make Ruiz a firm favourite. That fight alone does't make Ruiz favourite in my eyes but I suppose it depends how you look at things. For me it is like a lower league team beating a premier league team in a cup match, I wouldn't then make the lower league team favourite in the second leg on the basis of the first game, I would look at the pedigree up to that point, the wins they have had and the attributes they have - in this scenario, all of AJs would outweight Ruiz's. I would also add though, it seems we do not disagree too much on AJ but a lot of this debate is centred around on what we think of Ruiz, which is purely down to opinion and what you like. A handful - yes, a world beater - absolutely not.
We are all fans, all with opinions - mine is that there is a massive swell of opinion against the ability of Joshua which isn’t justified by one poor display. On the same token a great display by Ruiz does not cement him an elite level heavyweight. Referring to your previous post, I would like to ask, if: ‘We’re supposed to be proper boxing fans on here’ ... what is a proper fan? & ‘if they have the same thought process as some of the fans on here, they’ll get caught out again.’ ... well I don’t think McCracken will be paying much attention to this forum! It’s good to debate & you have many views we both agree on. See what happens in the rematch.
See this is where it has me thinking that there was something not right either in preperation or just before the fight. AJ had the look of that after the fight, almost like he was thinking "have your moment" to Ruiz. The fact that he didnt seem overly shocked and that he instantly wants the rematch. Similar to Lewis with Rahman, instantly he was of the thinking of an immediate rematch, he knew he took it easy in camp and wanted revenge. I think he underestimated Ruiz, at least mentally Macklin made a good point that his lack of respect or belief that Ruiz could beat him cost him the fight. That fear keeps you sharp, it makes you meticulous. I still think he is/will be underestimating him however, he might feel that he just has to be better to win, Ruiz might just be all wrong for him.
