Joshua/Ruiz 1/2

Looking back at the whole prep for that fight it seems he spend too much time promoting the fight and himself in the US in an attempt to break the US market. I mean when has he hired an air craft hanger and built his own gym in prep for a fight? When has he had some rapper I've never hard of interview him in a luxury villa he'd rented? Being outside of his usual set up, let to too many distractions, allowed him to lose focus on the job at hand.

Physically I think he was in shape but mentally he wasn't 100% focused on the job at hand and they do say boxing is 90% mental, 10 % physical. The change of opponent also wouldn't of helped. They had less time to break Ruiz's style down with more time they might have come up with better tactics and seen the danger of trading with Ruiz.

Hearn also in an interview said there was a medical reason for his poor performance which they were not aware of at the time, but until details of that are released I'll disregard that as hearsay.

As for the punch and power of Ruiz, the fact it was a counter punch has to be factored, he got caught mid combo while throwing a left hook and what is it they say "don't hook with a hooker" and he paid the price. We saw something similar when he fought Whyte went in for the KO and was countered with a left hook. So what we saw wasn't something new, it was an old flaw resurfacing again and it will likely be a weakness throughout his career.

I think Joshua simply had a bad night and a unfocused prep and we saw the result. I agree that 8/10 if not 9/10 he'd come out victorious. He's the better fighter, but Ruiz maybe the one guy in the division Joshua, can't go toe to toe with and come out on top.

 

He meant the excuses people are making for AJ

 

Ruiz didn't quite have the power at 255 against Parker, and coming in at 282 against the bodybuilder in the rematch obviously hindered his speed. His conditioning at 267lbs was his optimum weight, and I'm still in the belief that he would have beaten the lighter 238lb Joshua had he came at that weight in the first fight.

 

I'm an AJ fan and it's clear he made a mistake trading on the inside with Ruiz, that's obviously where Ruiz is a beast standing and trading.

AJ still rocked him hard even though he doesn't have a chin as good as Ruiz the destroyer!

 

Ruiz caught him with a lucky punch. That's all.

 

Sometimes it’s all about on the night. Ruiz won the first fight fair and square, Joshua got caught and it was game over - fair enough. 2nd fight Joshua showed true professionalism, worked and overcame some demons I’m sure and completely outboxed Ruiz. That’s how it goes.

 

This is is what you think but what we saw is he lost 1/2 times he fought Ruiz. And the fight he won he had to make his best poor wlad impersonation in which we didn't even get to see a ko.

 

Joshua fighting with the safety first approach, staying behind the jab wins 8/10 times. But if he stays in the pocket and trades, Ruiz wins more times than not.

 

The bodybuilder recovered from the Ruiz punch in the 3rd as he did with Wlad in the 6th. Problem is he tried going for a second assault and unlike Klitscsko, the blob absorbed that assault and pounded him down severely. Joshua is use to fighters falling down, Ruiz was the first guy that could take his power and fire back with severe consequences. He wasn't planning on a 12 round fight first time around.