Looked way out of his depth on reflection!

For Joshua's father to react the way he did after the fight, something obviously happened in camp. Only they know if it was a sparring incident , injury or something about TUE exemptions.

Whatever happened had a huge mental effect on Joshua fight night.

He looked more like David Price on Saturday night than the Heavyweight Champion of the World and that needs to be addressed if it can.

Ala the Price - Povetkin first knockdown, when Joshua tried to open up with hooks after the initial knockdown , Ruiz beat him to the punch and hurt him.

The same thing happened in Whyte fight. Whyte just never had the fitness to follow up like Ruiz, plus he had injured his shoulder.

I hope for Joshua's sake that he had a physical injury, because if the sparring stories are true then mentally he is done at top level. He does not have the technical ability nor the lateral movement to be able to adopt a similar style to Wladimir Klitchko.

Make no mistake about it Ruiz beat him mentally as well as physically and that is the key difference between this loss and the defeats Lennox Lewis suffered.

I never took to Joshua as a pro, early in his career he hit a few fighters whilst they were down and I always felt he had a bully mentality about him. I also find it bittersweet that it was in Heavyweight terms the short fat kid who beat him up and humiliated him.

 

When the little guy stood up to him, the big guy spat his gumshield out.

 

I think it is more likely that 2 years ago (after the Klitschko fight) Eddie Hearn promised Joshua's father that he would never again put him in any fights he might lose.
That's my best guess as to what caused that reaction.