Ruiz v Joshua well well well

[X]

We'll, I never saw that coming.

However, with the benefit of hindsight - IVAN DRAGO GOT TURNED INTO FRANK BRUNO.

Admittedly, with Ruiz being a late replacement, Joshua had trained for a different opponent. Miller must be truly gutted.

Thai wasn't Lewis/Rahman (which was effectively all about one huge punch against an undermotivated champion), or Tyson/Douglas (which was a man on a mission against somebody whose personal life, professional life and psyche were all publicly disintegrating)

If anything it was Louis/Schmeling I (a hugely touted invincible monster being systematically broken down and defeated against a mortal underdog) .... but even that that was a relatively untested youngster against a respected former heavyweight champion. Not a fat, relatively unknown late replacement who wasn't even ranked in the top ten.

Ruiz was impressive. Nice balance, very fast hands, good chin, countered well but without devastating power to be honest.

What won him the fight, IMO, was his footwork. He constantly inched forward, slowly about 6 inches a time. That gave him the centre of the ring for the whole fight and - crucially - allowed him to dictate pace and distance. In every single other fight he had, even Wladimir, it was AJ dictating at what distance the fight was going to be fought.

Joshua, nor his corner, had a clue what to do about that, and he spent the whole fight on the back foot, jabbing. That is not what he has been constructed to do, and the machine started to stutter. Ruiz took away Joshua's advantages in height, reach and power.

He was ponderous, his left hand was held stupidly low and he ate left hooks. He was a fairly chinny and clumsy amateur don't forget. He had no answer to Ruiz coming forward, hand speed and classy countering inside.

Under pressure, you tend to revert to your nature, and once the artificial edifice crumbled, Joshua looked like a stiff, immobile robot type who just retreated in straight lines without the smarts needed to fumble around and survive (something Fury does very well)

He was completed gassed after the third round. I'm not sure he really 'quit' but he knew he had absolutely nothing left and was desperately trying to buy time. If the ref hadn't called it off, AJ would have had about 25 seconds to recover instead of 8. The game was up and Joshua was completely finished by then.

As usual, people overhype sportsmen ..... even on here people have been speculating how AJ would have been too big and too good for Mike Tyson. On this evidence, AJ is made to measure for Iron Mike and he would be torn apart brutally.

AJ will be back, but that aura has been irreversibly damaged. Joe Louis came back to totally rebuild that aura but he is a historical one off. Lewis came back because he knew it was a 'lucky' punch. Tyson came back, but he wasn't really feared as much.

Joshua should have taken the Wilder fight instead of allowing his team to lowball offers.

[powerpuncher]

One thing that nobody has mentioned was that Ruiz looked gassed after the third round too. Both fighters were gassed but AJ was just more gassed and hurt.

[Ron Swanson]

We'll, I never saw that coming.

However, with the benefit of hindsight - IVAN DRAGO GOT TURNED INTO FRANK BRUNO.

Admittedly, with Ruiz being a late replacement, Joshua had trained for a different opponent. Miller must be truly gutted.

Thai wasn't Lewis/Rahman (which was effectively all about one huge punch against an undermotivated champion), or Tyson/Douglas (which was a man on a mission against somebody whose personal life, professional life and psyche were all publicly disintegrating)

If anything it was Louis/Schmeling I (a hugely touted invincible monster being systematically broken down and defeated against a mortal underdog) .... but even that that was a relatively untested youngster against a respected former heavyweight champion. Not a fat, relatively unknown late replacement who wasn't even ranked in the top ten.

Ruiz was impressive. Nice balance, very fast hands, good chin, countered well but without devastating power to be honest.

What won him the fight, IMO, was his footwork. He constantly inched forward, slowly about 6 inches a time. That gave him the centre of the ring for the whole fight and - crucially - allowed him to dictate pace and distance. In every single other fight he had, even Wladimir, it was AJ dictating at what distance the fight was going to be fought.

Joshua, nor his corner, had a clue what to do about that, and he spent the whole fight on the back foot, jabbing. That is not what he has been constructed to do, and the machine started to stutter. Ruiz took away Joshua's advantages in height, reach and power.

He was ponderous, his left hand was held stupidly low and he ate left hooks. He was a fairly chinny and clumsy amateur don't forget. He had no answer to Ruiz coming forward, hand speed and classy countering inside.

Under pressure, you tend to revert to your nature, and once the artificial edifice crumbled, Joshua looked like a stiff, immobile robot type who just retreated in straight lines without the smarts needed to fumble around and survive (something Fury does very well)

He was completed gassed after the third round. I'm not sure he really 'quit' but he knew he had absolutely nothing left and was desperately trying to buy time. If the ref hadn't called it off, AJ would have had about 25 seconds to recover instead of 8. The game was up and Joshua was completely finished by then.

As usual, people overhype sportsmen ..... even on here people have been speculating how AJ would have been too big and too good for Mike Tyson. On this evidence, AJ is made to measure for Iron Mike and he would be torn apart brutally.

AJ will be back, but that aura has been irreversibly damaged. Joe Louis came back to totally rebuild that aura but he is a historical one off. Lewis came back because he knew it was a 'lucky' punch. Tyson came back, but he wasn't really feared as much.

Joshua should have taken the Wilder fight instead of allowing his team to lowball offers.

There was nothing lucky about the Rock KO.