It is what boxing is all about. No team mates or manager to blame, on the night the outcome is never nailed on, and that uncertainty, however unlikely, is what keeps people tuning in and turning up. Joe is right a lot of credit goes to Robles and his fight plan, but also his ability to get Ruiz to believe in himself. On the night Ruiz had that focus and it was no one punch fluke that put those belts in his hands. Ruiz executed the gameplan thru adversity. He got clocked and yet did not let that make him lose his focus. Joshua may have always been susceptible to an overhand right but spotting a flaw an executing a strategy to make someone pay for it, is a different thing all together.

It does not make Joshua a hype job or a mere bodybuilder like Wilder and Fury have been saying it makes him a pro at the top of his game. That is why he is in dangerous situations everytime he gets into a ring with hungry well trained professional fighters who want to take his head off. He does not have to become a Kiltschko tribute act to be successful and regain his position but he does have a mountain to climb. The advantage he has is that he has climbed that mountain several times and can do so again. Ruiz knows how to make the most out of what he has and make that work for him. Joshua has been fortunate, or unfortunate enough, to get by by sometimes not always fighting smart and opting to box and instead getting into a war because the guy has heavy hands. AJ does not always have perfect technique or one punch stopping power but he has been able to make people wary and then follow thru on those heavy warnings with a decent finishing instinct. When Ruiz was able to negate that tactic of Joshua he was all out of answers. He was never going to compete with speed and combos and when Ruiz got back up he lost belief even in his ability to defend himself, let alone install any fear and wariness into Andy and then capitalize on that hesitation.

He is not going to be transformed into a speed machine in four months. He is not going to become a Manny Steward fighter either or develop a jab that nobody can get beyond in 16 weeks. It is a big challenge for McCracken if he is going to devise a strategy that gives Joshua the ability to make Ruiz think twice before marching in and holding the centre of the ring.

Respect to Ruiz and it is great after all this time that Mexico, without whom boxing would be a far poorer and duller sport, now has a Heavyweight Champion to add to their great boxing tradition. Respect to Joshua for putting all the belts on the line and going to America to do so when he could easily have stayed at home for the rest of his career. It was beyond stupid to hand the belts to Ruiz and that condescending attitude, however well meaning was surely evidence of his bootlaces unraveling long before he stepped in the ring. Do not get me wrong, he did not slip up or trip up, he had those belts taken away after a solid hammering from a more than worthy opponent, but he was asking for it the moment he lost sight of the fact that anyone getting themselves in a position to step into the ring opposite him, deserved his full focus and attention.

Even Charles Martin would have lasted longer than two rounds against the AJ who fought Ruiz. The rematch,if Joshua does not regain that focus, may simply be a re-run with an even more decisive finish. If AJ can get back into the centre of the ring and dictate things next time, the potential is there for him to climb back up the mountain. Whatever happens it may make the likelihood of Fury and/or Wider fighting Ruiz or AJ for those belts much more realistic and that is something to celebrate.