Did Andy Ruiz Leave Joshua With Lasting Brain Damage?

Lost his confidence... which is why he agreed to fight Fury, and now is agreeing to fight Usyk. If he'd lost his confidence, he'd be trying his best to duck everyone like Wilder.

 

Agreed to fight fury this summer even whilst his trainer was working with the GB squad for the olympics. Can anyone imagine Fury doing that?

 

Usyk will have to damn near kill AJ to force a stoppage in Britain. There was a fight recently where a Brit was getting beaten up by an Argentine and the ref threw the British towel out of the ring! And the Brit wasn't even a well-known fighter! The American ref would have let AJ get knocked down a 5th time by Ruiz and possibly more if AJ had given any indication of wanting to continue. Warrington-Lara should have been stopped 5 rounds earlier. If Usyk wins it will be an extremely brutal fight.

 

Joshua won't get any credit after he knocks Usyk out.

 

Usyk and his team aren't dumb; [url]they are aware[/url] of the speed/agility/gas for power/strength/mass/durability trade-offs. When Evan Fields moved up to heavyweight he put on 15 lbs of muscle mass but he was still faster than all of the bigger guys. Fields clearly believed that the extra weight was beneficial when fighting bigger men or he'd have fought HW's at 195 lbs instead of around 210 lbs and HW's are even bigger today. Usyk claimed to be [url]weighing 231 lbs[/url] back in mid-May so if true (and it could be misdirection) this is a longstanding plan and he's been adjusting to the weight. I don't think Usyk looked fleshy [url]weighing an even heavier 217.25 lbs against Chisora[/url] (which is only 5 lbs more than he was in the 2013 WSB fight [url]against Joyce[/url]) he just wasn't [url]drained on the scales[/url] as he was as a cruiser. Usyk said that [url]he could have been a bit heavier[/url] against Chisora but was happy with his weight for the fight. Usyk stated just after the Witherspoon fight that he wanted to be "[url]100 KG or a little more[/url]". I'm thinking Usyk will be below 225 lbs on the night but we will have to see.

 

Not an AJ fan but usyk is getting a real beating here

 

Which sparring partner are you referring to? I know he's sparring with Bakole, which I thought was unwise. Unless Usyk decides to fight very differently against AJ, fighting Bellew and Chisora was probably a bad idea (especially Chisora: if the purpose was to acclimatise to HW then he should have fought a SHW with a lot more height and reach). Though as far as intel goes, Bellew and Chisora are pretty dumb and he surely fought them with mind to building his UK profile: two big PPV Matchroom shows as a prelude to fighting AJ, who he has been observing since the 2011 amateur world championships and has stated his intention to fight since 2016.

Evan Fields was a walking PED factory but he was naturally smaller than Usyk: 1.5 inches shorter and the old cruiser limit was 190 lbs, yet at Usyk's age Fields was fighting around 215 lbs. Usyk fought Witherspoon in 2nd gear so I wouldn't worry about that, it reminds me of Fury vs Pianeta. I don't think Usyk has slowed down as much as it seems since the WSB; against Chisora they deliberately chose a small ring and Usyk had most trouble in the WSB with the short, stocky pressure fighter Mihai Nistor. The first two rounds of Usyk-Chisora gave a distorted impression of the fight, Usyk won the vast majority of the rounds and hurt Chisora (who is heavier and tougher than AJ) in the mid rounds. The WSB fights are 5 rounds so Usyk could afford to fight at a higher pace, even Joyce looked way faster than he does today.

Usyk's best stoppage wins are Huck, Mchunu and Bellew: all late finishes against opponents who had previously been KO'd at least once. Conversely, he did not manage to stop Glowacki, Hunter, Briedis, Gassiev or Chisora. AJ will be the biggest and most powerful opponent he's faced so Usyk may reason that if he approaches this fight in the same way he's approached the others, he won't get the KO and he'll lose. In this context putting on mass is a calculated risk.

 

Pulev was almost 40 and hadn't scored a notable win in years. There's nothing to suggest he was still top 10

 

True but he's better than journeyman Schwartz and Seferi, LOL, I'd even favor him to beat overrated Otto Wallin. Pulev isn't top 10 but he's likely in the lower part of top 15.

 

Usyk is going to do a Bellew like job on him.

 

Surely Usyk must know that Bakole and AJ are friends and the obvious dangers of hiring sparring partners who are even potential allies of the opponent? Unless there is some counter-intelligence purpose it seems extremely stupid.

Part of Usyk's apparent decline in speed, agility, reflexes, co-ordination, balance and stamina has to do with the fact that he's almost 35 now rather than 26 and has sustained a lot more wear and tear in training and fights since then. But I maintain that Usyk could get away with a higher work rate in the WSB and it was much more necessary as your opponent is going to work a lot harder over 5 rounds as well.

We don't know yet how much weight Usyk's putting on, we may not even be certain after the weigh-in. It's virtually axiomatic that increasing his weight past 220 is going to hinder his speed, agility and movement to some degree. The question is how much is it going to reduce it and is the gain in mass, strength, durability and power more beneficial on balance. In the abstract, we know that the latter are more important than the former: Loma is a lot faster and more dextrous than Usyk let alone AJ but he'd have no chance against either. Coming in at 210 lbs and giving up around 30 lbs in mass to a significantly bigger, stronger man who can punch hard over a 12 round fight would be a big mistake in my view.