someone so highly rated by most, fell so hard like Joshua ?? Not Tyson v Douglas, Tyson took a beating and was knocked stupid to the point he COULD NOT CONTINUE, Joshua on the other hand looked like he wanted saving, like embarrassing !!! What matches it ?? I cant think, theres been upsets, but the manner of it was unrivalled imo..Come in like a Lion, left like a happy lamb.. What beats it ?
It stands alone in that regard. No question about it. And it’s hilarious because Joshua ‘fans’ love to always point out that Wlad “Lost to a FAT bum” but Corrie looked like Hugh Jackman compared to Andy.
Nothing beats it in terms of the physical disparity between the fighters. The results of this match elevated the idiom "don't judge a book by it's cover" to the stratosphere. Next stop mesosphere.
The first Ali vs Liston fight comes to mind though Ali is light years ahead of Ruiz That’s a pretty high profile quit job by an expected favorite I’m trying to think of a fight where a guy took a knee and didn’t get up until 10 but looked ok to go. Maybe Scott vs Chisora though obviously not on the same magnitude of what happened in Ruiz vs Joshua
Jeff Lacy. So many people thought Joe Calzaghe was going to be his coming out party. Until the bell rang and Joe beat him silly for the next 12 rounds. Muscles look cool, but they don’t win boxing matches.
The difference is that most weren't sold on Joshua in the first place. It was unexpected from Ruiz given his misleading physique but it was expected to happen soon enough anyway.
In April of 2004, Roy Jones Jr was P4P#1, and was near the peak of his popularity (after having just recently succeeded at his heavyweight attempt) and people were placing the already highly regarded Jones, even higher in their estimations and acclaim. In October of that same year, he had been shockingly knocked out twice in a row by two different fighters, dropped from p4p lists, legacy questioned, and from a few in the press, even whispers that he should retire. .... I have to assume that people that dont think Wlad fell in a similar manner after Sanders and Brewster, werent around at the time. He was absolutely ridiculed in similar fashion to what AJ is experiencing now.
Depends on what you mean by special. He had plenty of hype at the time and was considered a legitimate entity at the weight. There's a reason he was the favorite going in to the JC fight.
Someone going from being argued as the best to ever do it, top 5 greatest of all time, p4p number one... to being told maybe he should retire and everyone questioning his legacy within the span of 7 months, isnt a bigger fall from grace than Joshua, losing to Ruiz? Lmao.... The notion that AJ is held as highly as Jones was, and that he fell farther, is kinda funny. You must not have been a boxing fan back then. No worries. Roy Jones was considered an ATG.
A young Ray Leonard in his 2nd defense was supposed to beat the old guy Duran who dominated at LW, not WW. RL got bruised and swollen losing by way of UD. Out punched & out landed.
Zab Judah was the next superstar in the making when he got ko’d Kostya Tszyu, the way he was ko’d and his antics afterward made for a meteoric fall. Naseem Hamed when he got beat down by Barrera Razor Ruddock was considered the uncrowned champion after Tyson went to prison and was expected to walk through Lewis, then blam. Bowe when he ran into Golota. Wlad’s early ko losses remind me a little of AJ’s because they were unexpected and Wlad looked mentally beat, but then he found Emanuel Steward. AJ is a superstar in large part thanks to good luck and great marketing. And it was the perfect storm from a marketing standpoint. From a legacy standpoint, I’m not sure the luck was all good because his opportunities appear to have come earlier than expected or before he was truly ready. Or maybe they came before catastrophe struck, tough to tell. We’ll see how he comes back from it.