Joshua External Issues?!

No i agree he looked off ish when he got into the ring. Like not totally focused on the job at hand. Not complacent, just a bit unsure

And he was blowing hard just after round one.

Regardless he lost to a great man fair and square, and i have a lot of respect for Ruiz for taking his opportunity.

Cant wait for the rematch.

 

Was a very strange night.

Why was Joshua's dad having a go at Eddie Hearn during Ruiz' post fight interview?? AJ had to calm him down, saying 'It WAS ME, IT WAS ME'. Was he just being bitter or was there something more to it?

You then question why his ring walk was delayed. They said he needed to change his groin guard but I think potentially some people wanted to pull him out the fight for whatever reason and Eddie said no.

Also consider at the pre fight press conference Joshua had big Sty's in his eyes and marks on his nose bridge, which is a sign of being unwell and generally run down.

He fought like a guy who had been smashed up in sparring a few times as well.

Something was definitely fishy and I'm sure it will come out in the coming weeks.

 

I heard AJ was acting a little strange pre-fight so I looked for it - but to me he looked pretty normal.

What AJ fans don't realize that us Parker fans know - is that Ruiz is FAR better than advertised. We saw it very clearly in 2016.

We tried to warn you guys - but you just wouldn't listen.

If you can - look for Kevin Barry's comments at the Parker-Matchroom press conf just before yesterday's fight. Barry tells the whole room how much better Ruiz will be than they think. All kiwis know this.

 

Watched the fight a few times. Joshua's body was at MSG but the little man inside his head wasn't. He was gone before he even stepped in the ring. No idea where he was or what was happening.

 

My theory is Joshua has a Glass Jaw and it was shattered. It doesn’t involve aliens or any conspiracy.

 

Translation: if I don’t agree with your narrative I must be trolling.

How many fights have you seen where your focus was on the ring walk and behavior during intros? How often are fighters 100 percent consistent on this? Are you sure AJ missed his cue - or could it have been, as Mike Tyson and Ali and others did sometimes, a tactic to try to make the other guy wait and wonder a little longer? Or any of 1000 other things - maybe he was praying or the team huddling a little longer than usual or the cornerman has to take a toilet break, etc? Why in this case do you focus on that?

In fact, have you really sat down and studied each and every AJ ring walk and in-ring intro to see if they are all the same or if there are some differences from fight to fight? Because unless they are all the same apart from this one singular exception, then this smells of you looking for excuses to say ‘see he lost because something was off/different.’

The mental part of boxing is real but a guy who has been on the big stage before is not likely to suddenly fall apart now. The mental things I see at play here are:

1) Ruiz showed mental fortitude in shaking off the knockdown and getting right back on the horse. He is mentally strong.

2) AJ reacted poorly to this when Ruiz didn’t fold and instead fought back.

3) AJ, unlike Ruiz, didn’t handle his first (or second or third) knockdown well. In short, he folded. He wasn’t mentally equipped to deal with an opponent who didn’t back down and kept answering his offense with their own combinations. He didn’t adjust. He didn’t problem-solve.

Those are mental issues and I see no way that relates to his ring walk, lol.

4) AJ when faced with crisis basically waved the surrender flag. He said yes when the ref asked if he wanted to continue but his body language said no. He didn’t step forward, hold up his hands or act like he wanted to fight.

So I attribute any mental ‘issues’ to

 

Saintpat.......I didn't say anything about pre fight issues. that topic has been raised on this forum. In hindsight I simply acknowledged he did seem off. I had attributed it to simple prefight jitters on a big stage not as a justification for a loss. I just acknowledged it as a real thing that has happened in the past. I am not in any stage of denial or grief as I am not invested in either of these fighters to any extent. I gave and do give Ruiz his respect for what he did. Maybe you should switch to a decaffeinated blend for a while.

 

AJ was also chatting nonsense in the first round break.

something like, "yeah, simple, easy work innit"

was a bit weird lol.

 

Saintpat must be missing his days as hall monitor in grammar school. Perhaps change your handle to Sanctimonious SaintPat. You will feel better.

 

It's funny that you're talking about the pre-ringwalk stuff. My wife who's been a paramedic for years doesn't particularly like boxing but watches with me regardless bless her, jumped on that straight away.
When Aj finally left his locker room and was stood there swaying and doing that weird stuff with his gumshield she looked up from her phone and straight away said "What's wrong with him?"
I go "What do you mean?"
She replies "Has he got a concussion? Surely they wouldn't let him fight with a concussion?"
I didn't have a clue what she was talking about but like you guys I thought he seemed a little off.
After the second round she says "listen to him? (talking to his corner man) He's away with the fairy's isn't he?"
Now I've never been a Joshua fan but due to the nature of this thread I thought you might find it interesting

 

New York probably has the strictest concussion protocol of any boxing commission in the world. Joshua had no concussion and your anecdote is worthless.

 

I thought his body language and other stuff was just weird all night. Talking nonsense to McCracken in between rounds, all the weird stuff he was doing with the gum shield pre fight and the lack of any kind of look of disappointment at the end. Most fighters would’ve been screaming at the ref not to stop the fight but Joshua just looked resigned.