I don't think Anthony Joshua was exposed, the problem was psychological (and why that may be worse)

Its just easy to harp on a fighter when he loses by KO. I just think the loss was psychological, that wasn't the Anthony Joshua we saw in other fights. Now I want to preface this with people saying: BUT HE'S BEEN HURT IN FIGHTS BEFORE! And so what? What HW hasn't been hit with big shots and fights? Especially a HW who is very offensively oriented like AJ and goes for KOs.

Whatever you may say, AJ's rise as a HW was the most impressive in 20 years. He was knocking out everyone. He would come out swinging and what impressed me so much initially was the KO of Kevin Johnson. Kevin Johnson knows the game of boxing in being extremely slick and despite the age nobody even came close at just completely knocking him out and humiliating him. After that Joshua kept knocking guys out and was hurt for the first time against Dillian Whyte (who we would later know would be a top HW) yet he still obliterated the guy in hindsight. He goes on to destroy Martin (who never had that happen to him) and Breazeale. Joshua's pure power, strength, and finishing ability was soooo top notch. We didn't see that type of power since the Klitschkos and yet even with them I don't think they had the finishing power that AJ showed.

But what happened? The Wlad fight just wasn't good for Joshua psychologically. I mean the night was great for Joshua, but something happened after that fight. Wlad hurt Joshua pretty bad multiple times and did put him down. I just felt like AJ developed a lack of confidence in fully rushing in for the kill. Usually guys lose that early in their career but AJ depended on that style. Something got in his mind that somebody could do that to him again, and he became a lot more careful but what developed I think was a level of fear. Now does everyone have fear? Yes. But AJ was very fearless and knew that he could take a few shots because his level of power over an opponent was superior. But what happened in his very next fight against Carlos Takam? Joshua just didn't show that killer mentality. He wanted the KO, but he didn't show that level to go for it. The fight ended in a British stoppage but it was the first time I saw that Joshua would have only gotten the decision.

I thought it was an off night coupled with Takam's good defensive ability. But the Parker fight was disappointing. Is Parker a great boxer? Yes. But Parker didn't have the power to really stop a true Joshua barrage. AJ changed his style and just boxed (which he did well) utilizing his size and speed. But something seemed off. After the fight I remember AJ stated that he didn't want to take risks due to the potential for a Wilder fight. That raised some red flags for me at the time but in hindsight that sends a million red flags. Why is a fighter so preoccupied with a future opponent? Why did he abandon his style of fighting? Did Wilder abandon his style to fight AJ? No. Yet Wilder needed the AJ fight a lot more than Joshua did! Then the Povetkin fight happened, and Joshua got hurt in the 1st/2nd round, he basically was wobbled! Now AJ still had that power but it was just odd to see. Povetkin never hurt Wlad, and that was a much younger Povetkin. This was an older Povetkin who did have experience but I think that even though Povetkin was gonna pick up rounds he wasn't supposed to hurt AJ. Also, in these 3 fights AJ looked progressively less confident prior to the fight.

Finally, the Ruiz fight. His behavior is so unprofessional! I see guys on the undercards with horrible records and 3 people in the arena with more focus and drive than AJ did. Everything in the prefight was weird, I almost thought AJ looked like he was on drugs. I almost thought this was going to be a Wlad-Brewster type of drugging. AJ lacked so much confidence! He no longer even believed he could box Ruiz and he feared his shots. AJ showed total fear, how could the guy who imposed so much become so scared! If he had that mentality even versus Whyte early in his career he would have been on the canvas in no time! How was this the same guy who was walking Whyte down and grinning at him? Then he lost and just didn't care. That makes no sense, fighters have a ton of pride. When you lose that 0, it hurts so bad. You learn from it with time, but AJ walked in like he knew he was going to lose. That is a psychological problem. This is a very long post, I know. But AJ has lost total confidence in his abilities. I think Andy Ruiz is underrated, he along with Kownacki are great Heavyweights who casuals are fed the lie that they should be horrible because they are overweight (yet this was never what boxing was about). But AJ isn't a great fighter because of his shape, its because of his boxing skills and knockout ability. I think if a fighter is exposed they can refine their game and develop a different style. But AJ's problem is purely psychological and that can be harder to correct than skill refinement.