Everyone knows better now. I'm already sick of hearing what AJ should do or should not do.
Wait for the rematch, let him get the KO and shut up.
Ruiz is just a tourist to those belts. He got lucky, didn't deserve a title shot, didn't against Parker, although he fought well and might have edged it out and definitely didn't deserve the fight with AJ. But he took advantage of it and got the W.
As for AJ ?
- He has to be taught to fight big and tall.
- He has to be taught to use his ramrod jab.
- He has to be taught to punish his opponents with right inside uppercuts.
- He has to be taught to learn to clinch and use weight size strength.
AJ's stamina isn't as bad as ppl think. The Klitschko's had that "empty tank" look too, always had to open their mouths open, always looked tired. Joshua breathing heavily doesn't mean he's done. He's a really big guy and with those muscles, you need to breathe heavy to get enough oxygen in.
His trainer (Rob McCracken) got the Amateur GB gig then stayed on with AJ. His only real experience of note before that was training Carl Froch. And let's be honest, Froch had to rely on having a granite chin. Froch was slow, flat-footed and quite predictable and couldn't box very well.
I've no idea who could do a better job for AJ. There are no names who immediately jump out. There's Adam Booth who has a great boxing brain and IQ but he's a bit weird and he is already invested in a bunch of fighters and just took Joe Joyce on.
Ruiz totally negated AJ's jab and McCracken was screaming at AJ to keep doing the same 1-2, and to keep him long. It wasn't working. At some point you have to switch it up. More right hand leads, more 2-3 combinations to the body and head, etc... Whatever he was doing wasn't working... Switch it up...
A new trainer I think can make him better in there to utilize his strengths better with some dirty tactic stuff he could probably use, but I don't expect him to start moving his head if he isn't at this point in the game. In any case I think its fair to say he's maxed out with McCracken.
But whoever is in AJ's corner next time things will be completely different. When I head Andy Ruiz say "mom we don't have to struggle no more" I knew he'll have a hard time defending those titles. He's not even Buster Douglas. AJ also isn't Tyson.
Ruiz looks to me like one of those impatient fighters that needs something dramatic to happen in his fights otherwise he loses interest and gets disheartened. Joshua needs to box intelligently and he'll take Ruiz out without any doubt. The shot that dropped Ruiz wasn't even close to AJ's best punch. If anything it showed AJ can hurt him EASILY.
The only reason AJ lost that fight is because he tried to finish Ruiz, opened up recklessly and Ruiz hit him with two good left hooks.
The fight should have been over in the third round. Ruiz even allowed AJ to hang in there, survive for a few more rounds when he was badly hurt and didn't even want to fight anymore. Why? Because Ruiz isn't really that good. He couldn't even really hurt zombie Liakhovich. Again, Ruiz is very likable but not an elite boxer. He just isn't. He was irrelevant before the fight and he'll be irrelevant after the rematch, most likely. That's just how it is, nothing against him, very nice guy, very good kid. Not a long time heavyweight champ.
"anything can happen, it's heavyweight boxing" blablabla, most overused phrase in the sport? In sport in general? Yeah, upsets happen every now and then, it just happened, calm down, take a seat, watch the rematch, world keeps turning.
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