The last knockdown, Joshua was caught with a couple of counter looping shots. They were lightning fast, even if you slowed it down. Joshua did stun him, but he just got caught. He can't take Ruiz power on the inside, that's evident.
Yeah, Joshua can live to fight on another day, plus he can psychologically justify to himself that he was still good to continue. That wouldn't be possible if he was laid out on the canvas a dribbling mess.
This reminds me a lot of Benn/Mclellan. There's quitting, and there's quitting. In this case AJ didn't know what round he was in or where he was.
the ref gave him of plenty of time to recover!! he gave him a 10 count, then he let AJ walk over to the corner wtf??? Who the hell walks to the corner then rests his arms on the ropes??? that is NOT sign of a fighter thats ready to go.... not to mention he INTENTIONALLY spit out his mouthpiece, which is a classic tactic he has used before in his past.
Yeah I get that but I'm speaking from the perspective of someone who was raised in one of the toughest caravan parks in the UK and is a distant relative of Bartley ''King of the Gypsies'' Gorman. I'd still be trying to administer a gypsy slicking to one of my opponents if they'd pulled out a shotgun and blown both my legs off.
Spitting the mouthpiece out isn't quitting anymore than clinching or taking a knee is. Its just the sensible thing to do to try and buy some recovery time.
He was clearly having thoughts after the first KD in the last round and after the ref waved it off he wasn't upset at all
He was dropped, but they weren't bad knockdowns. There's a difference between that kind of KD and Fury Wilder. HUGE difference. He wasn't badly hurt, he was gassed possibly, but is that a reason to quit? People fight with broken hands, jaws, collar bones, being gassed is not a reason to quit nor are knockdowns, unless you've taken too much, which he hadn't. What was JMM supposed to do after the first round of the first Pac fight?
But with what? He got knocked down, but they weren't bad knockdowns. And outside of that the fight wasn't very eventful, there weren't bad punches taken and it was a pretty even fight outside of the moments of the KDs. This was such a bizarre quit job, yet people are acting as if it was all completely normal.
Because he was getting the stuffing beat out of him? He quit to save himself from getting fully KTFO.
This. He was gassed out and knew he was beat, so he swallowed his pride and took the loss rather than taking more punishment. He’ll have plenty of time to re-watch the fight and study Ruiz for the Re-match.
