A Fairly Thorough Explanation As To Why Ruiz's KO Victory Over AJ Was In Fact NOT A Fluke.

Don't let yourself get fooled, while I'm not a huge fan of AJ, there's a reason why Anthony Joshua beat Wladimir Klitschko, Alexander Povetkin, Dillian Whyte, Carlos Takam and Joseph Parker. It's because Joshua's power is very real and works as a wickedly powerful deterrent and ultimately an exclamation point against most fighters with weak chins and safety first fighters that don't like taking risks, hell even guys with amazing chins can't be ruled out, he was even able to drop Ruiz after all. Is it Wilder level power? Maybe not, but it's not too far off. Add to that, AJ has a solid command of the fundamentals, decent reflexes, fast hands, is a good combination puncher, decent footwork, and yes good timing. So when you add the power as the ultimate deterrent, that quickly turns what appears to be only a moderately skilled boxer into a fearful beast of a fighter to most fans, so beastly in fact, most of his opponents are terrified of sharing the ring with him. Except for Ruiz, because Ruiz knew that he had his number going in. Hence the aw shucks I can't believed I'm being given this shot mixed with low level Cheshire Cat grin from ear to ear on his face before the fight. Why and how AJ falters against a guy like Ruiz is because he possesses a few qualities that are in every way, shape and form.... AJ's kryptonite. Let me lay them out for you....

While Ruiz has a solid high guard defense, it's what he does with that high guard defense that matters. It's not just a high guard, it's a very active, very involved high guard. Ruiz has immaculate parrying skills, he does it so quickly and effortlessly, that its nearly imperceptible to the human eye. Every time AJ throws a punch, Ruiz's quick ass hands fly up, catch them, push them out of the way, or swat them away, and he does this with both hands and incessantly, it's almost Golovkin like, it's second nature and reflexive, it's fluid, something that's been ingrained in him for years. It's subtle, not obvious in the least, but it's frustrating as hell to AJ. The fact that no matter how many one twos or combinations he attempts, his punches never quite reach their intended destination, not the rights, the jabs, nothing. And because of that, he can't establish a rhythm, and therefore can't do what he does best, which is walk his man down and inflict damage by wearing him down with the jab, because he's so rarely landing flush on him with anything. That tends to mentally really throw fighters off of their game. Meanwhile, while AJ is trying to land his jab, which is incessantly being parried, Andy's is slowly walking him down, backing him up, throwing him out of his rhythm even more and due to is handspeed, is able to get his jab quickly in and out, consistently doing damage of his own, usually to the body, which is incrementally zapping AJ of all of his energy.

Ruiz's head movement is exemplary, not only is his head usually constantly just out of range due to his parrying skills and footwork, but when a punch does get through his defense, he rides with it. He takes the stink off of it, by moving his head with the punch as it connects. So by pulling away instead of going into the punch, he greatly lessens its effectiveness. Most boxers do this to a certain extent, even brawlers that go toe to toe, but not as effectively as Ruiz. They always say it's the punch you don't see coming that does the most damage, well that's true. Because you're not defending against it or prepared for it. Therefore you have to absorb the full impact of it. Well aside from the counter left hook that dropped him, he was ready for and rolled with almost everything that was thrown his way. Also the punches that can hurt you the most are the ones you're moving into, see KTFO6 for example. Pac got KTFO, because he jumped chin first into a shot, that Marquez lunged forward putting his full body weight behind. That was literally the definition of sitting down on a punch. Basically it's the equivalent of two rams charging one another and clashing heads. Only one ram at the last minute weaves out of the way and connects flush on the chin of the other unsuspecting ram and puts his lights out. Well, Ruiz isn't that careless, because unlike most fools, he doesn't rush in.....

Of course there is the whole chin, mental toughness, focus and powers of recovery of Ruiz thing. Most people buckle and mentally quit when they get tagged and dropped like that. Like AJ. Although, some do not and that's something that can't be taught, you just have it or don't. Ruiz got caught with an absolutely murderous left hook on the button, that shot would have KO'd many fighters cold. He hopped back up and shook it off like it was a flash knockdown. Also, since he recovered from it so quickly and retained his focus, due to his grit and mental toughness, he took the fight to AJ, but responsibly. Because he was cognizant that AJ would be going for the kill, so he calmly waited and using his superior defense, handspeed and timing, with laser focus was able to roll with, time him and immediately counter him and in combination inbetween his punches. Like the serenity in the eye of a hurricane.

All the while, Ruiz is consistently landing that heavy authoritative jab to the body, and occasionally tossing in snappy fast two punch combos to the gut, causing AJ, who has a terrible gas tank to begin with, to start sucking air and dropping his hands, leaving his head open as a target.

Also, Andy's offense also serves as his defense. Especially when his opponents are tired. He comes in like a fistic tornado, responsibly, and still jabbing and feinting his way in, then he unleashes the flurry when in range, his opponents automatically shell up or keep their hands at home trying to defend themselves. Meanwhile, his handspeed is so frighteningly fast, he can unleash a 3 or 4, even 6 punch combo, that even if the first two miss or are defended against, the last two will land flush. And speed equals power, especially with heavyweights. After all, what would you rather be hit with? A baseball going 20 miles an hour, or 3 little rubber balls coming at your noggin at 50?

And last, but far from least. This is the most important aspect of all....

He lost to Ruiz, not only because Ruiz has better footwork, faster hands and better defense. He lost to him because Andy is an excellent trap setter and an excellent counter-puncher who counter punches in combination. Andy possesses a rare and somewhat unique asset, its his ability to not only ride with a shot. But to set a trap by baiting him in, get him to throw, roll with the punch as it grazes his chin, and then his head follows Joshua's fist BACK OUT as he draws it back in, using it as a momentarily open door to get inside and land on him before he's able to get it off again. It's almost as if Ruiz is reacting to Joshua's punches as if they're magnets pulling him inward, right back into the front door. It's like timing a cuckoo clock and following the cuckoo back in the door after it pops out. How's that for next level slickness? And yes, that is the next level skillset I'm talking about here.

Think on what I just laid out, mull it over, fully process it, go check out the fight again after taking all of this in, and you'll see exactly what I saw before I picked Ruiz for the upset.

Can AJ land a haymaker that puts Ruiz down for the count in the rematch, this is boxing anything is possible. But it's not going to be that easy is it? Ruiz is a riddle, with a boxing IQ that's several levels higher than AJ's, and that's not just something he can learn how to deal with overnight, especially working with trainers that probably aren't even properly processing why they lost in the first place.

It's not just one of these reasons why AJ lost, its all of them, and in order to beat Ruiz, he's going to have to first decode these copious subtle intangibles that Ruiz brings to the table and learn how deal with every last one of them.

But let's be honest, skills pay the bills, and like most decent but one dimensional fighters, AJ's hit his ceiling, and that ceiling is more than enough to beat 90% of the Heavyweights out there, but.... not Ruiz. Because Ruiz has his number, and will have the number of countless other Heavyweights in the future. This isn't a fluke, Ruiz is not a joke, there was no lucky punch, because Ruiz landed 59 of them (that's a hell of a lot of lucky punches), which gradually broke him down, disconnected him from his senses and ultimately took his heart and soul from his body, put them on a plate, and Ruiz put some Adobo seasoning on them and feasted upon it, before AJ's very own eyes. Ruiz won every second of this fight, and made AJ his *****. Its as simple as that.

 

No one triggered me, I had to explain this to idiots like you that don't fully comprehend the sport of boxing as well as you think you do. Oh yeah, and to shut your ass down and all the other propagandists on this site that like to peddle lies and misinformation, most of which is to only make themselves feel better about themselves for being such idiots to believe in such a flawed fragile false idol to begin with. I thrive on tearing bull**** narratives to ribbons. It's kind of my jam (goddamn I hate that term).