AJ had his cards taken off the table for him more often than not. Huge dudes take turns looking for wind, guys pace themselves and knowing you're able to set the same combos and find your pretty predictable target over and over affords that. Credit where credit is due.
I definitely credit Ruiz for winning, but I’m just stating that he did not look on top shape. I’m not sure if he would have beaten AJ if AJ weren’t so gassed. AJ looked like he weathered the storm a little but just couldn’t capitalize because he was so tired. Someone less tired could have gotten his legs back and adjusted.
Well really didn't we assume to know that going in, he didn't 'look' like a lot of things while AJ did. It's two way traffic in there, Joshua was put there he didn't just waltz in and decide whelp heck I'm beat I'll just take a seat here on the canvas. I asked it going in..all that bulk and muscle not to mention never really facing fast short counters like that. Andy set the pace. It came back to bite him and results trump look.
Hey don't get me wrong I'm not making Ruiz out to be the next coming but it's not like he came from absolute untested obscurity. He answered all questions put to him and surpassed expectations, he shook up the worldJoshua not so much. Personally I think Wilder v Ruiz would be an interesting style match up. And of course AJ rematch which is all but certain. Ruiz v Fury feels like it would be dreadful but have to see how this plays out now.
Well he certainly did a great Bruno impersonation stumbling around like a drunken wildebeest. Not holding when he was hurt.... "clinching is horrible, it's awful" shut up, it's the SMART MOVE, you clinch, you push off, you use that until the ref warns you or starts taking points, these are weapons to use at your disposal.
The most demoralizing thing about this loss is that it wasn't a 1 lucky punch landing flush and rocking AJ for more than 10 seconds or a follow up after something like that. It wasn't AJ gassing out swinging for the fences....this was AJ getting into a trading battle and getting caught again, again, again, again and never learning or making adjustments. That's more than just a momentary lack of focus, that's more than someone throwing the right punch at the right time and landing clean it's someone seeing an opening inherent in AJ's style and exploiting it.
Andy Ruiz didn't lay the blueprint down in toto, but he got a really good rough draft in for people to follow. I'm not sure Wilder could follow it, I'm not sure Fury could follow it, but there are other fighters who certainly could follow it if AJ doesn't learn from his mistakes.
The ONLY good thing is perhaps this makes AJ-Wilder or Wilder-Fury 2 or AJ-Fury easier to make going forward but I doubt it.
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