Yes, but he shouldnt because hes letting the one punch on the ear that ruiz did to him get to his mind, it can happen to anybody.
No, I don't think so. He got rocked a couple of times by Usyk, but came back. In rds 3 and 6 Usyk popped AJ with several hard, clean shots, but he responded in the next round in both cases. I think this is getting a bit over analysed. Usyk was just very good. Joshua looked puzzled in the opening three rds, but responded well over the next five before Usyk's superior conditioning saw him run away down the stretch. He looked a bit restrained against Pulev and could probably have closed that one sooner, but I got the feeling that he was already looking towards an upcoming unification fight and just didn't want to risk anything.
He became more gun shy after the Wlad fight and then the Ruiz 1 fight was the icing on his cake. Safety first now, caught between styles.... Ran around the ring in Ruiz 2 and then didn't go in for the kill against Pulev when he was there for the taking. Instead drawing the fight out for longer than it needed. Needs to get back to what got him to the title in the first place and start looking to steam roll his opponents again.
Well he schooled Fat Andy in the rematch and won back all his belts and knocked out Pulev in the rematch so evidently not. Sure he was on his bicycle all night against Fat Andy and was terrified of standing still for more than a split second, but that's understandable considering he'd been bounced up and down off the canvas like a yoyo and stopped by him in the first fight and he just doesn't possess the internal fortitude of a Fury or an Usyk but to be fair very few do. If Usyk, who I keep having to remind folk had been very inactive going into their fight and had everything against him, really wanted to get him out of there he most certainly could and would have. Look at the state of AJ in his corner after Usyk put his foot on the gas for the first time in the fight. He was seconds away from getting stopped and had Usyk put his foot on the gas a little earlier he surely would've been. This content is protected
This! Or atleast have some different styles in his repertoire si he is able to switch things up and adapt to thr situation needed. Doesnt look like he can though.
No, he looked fine. A bit more cautious but that isn't being ruined any more than Wlad adopting the safety first style became ruined when he went on one of the most dominant winning streaks since Joe Louis. If anything the Usyk fight might have dented his confidence more since he was just soundly outboxed with no real positives to take away. At least he knocked Ruiz down before getting careless, then beat him in the rematch of course.
That said, I think the AJ that showed up against Usyk would have beat Andy the first time. I like that AJ. He didn't gas and that changes the equation substantially, imo.
No Wlad did. Joshua started fighting scared after the Wlad fight. Parker was a 12 round snooze fest. He took 10 rounds to get rid of Takam and honestly Carlos would have lasted 12 if not for a British stoppage. He did KO Povetkin but the Russian came to fight so he didn't really have a choice. I remember after the Klitschko fight Carl Frampton talking about how Joshua had been saying weird things like he'd retire if he ever had to go through a fight like that again. Joshua is a good boxer but he doesn't relish a fight.
He shook his confident somewhat.. Similar to Camacho against Rosario, but I give Joshua credit for going on..
