Honestly didn't think Ruiz would last 3 rounds, too small, too fat and too easy to hit. Obviously I was wrong, Ruiz is simply too dangerous on the counter to open up against, we saw that vs Parker too, but I thought Joshua could take him out from range and it looked like that was going to happen in the third until what happened, happened. What I didn't expect was Ruiz to eat a huge right hand, left uppercut, left hook combo and get up completely clear headed and then take another huge right hand and fire back. His chin and ability to recover was stunning, most other heavies wouldn't of even gotten up from that combo, but he did and caught Joshua on the temple with a cracking left hook and Joshua never really recovered.
No, I knew Ruiz was a very good boxer but I didn't think he was going to be able to compensate with his speed and his timing the huge difference in reach with Joshua.
No, but I have seen alot of Ruiz's fights, and never seen him put on the backfoot or hurt. I always thought Joshua would be the first one to take him out, and that still hasn't happened. He doesn't seem to get hurt at all.
AJ doesn't do full out hard sparring. So that as well did not work in his favour once Ruiz pounced on him. He wasn't used to it I supposed.
No. I said I was rooting for Ruiz to upset him and that it would be funny, but I did not at all think he would actually win at the time
Felt that Ruiz was going to lose a close decision, similar to when he fought Parker. Lets face it, noone expected AJ to react to the punches the way he did. He's a Olympic gold medalist and had beaten Klitschko. The way he covered up from punches looked like a first-time school boy boxer.
I expected the jokes about Ruiz being a fat lazy mofo who wouldn't come to fight were exaggerated they were correct & AJ ringcircled scared for his life for 12 rounds lol. AJ did what he had to do...but he's still a big stiff idiot. Even when he was trying to outbox and just move around a little fat ball he looked unnatural.
I did, was the only guy (maybe one other) who voted for Ruiz pre fight. I knew Ruiz was tough and had good hand speed and power, but the main thing was he was a late stand in and not taken seriously by Joshua. We'd also seen the spectacle of a clunky Joshua coming within a whisker of being stopped by Wlad, an inactive old Wlad, Ruiz was just off a good win vs a tall hw with some similar attributes to Joshua. It wasn't a huge shock to me but neither was the horrible rematch.
