By Barry Holbrook: Andy Ruiz Jr. says knew he was going to beat Anthony Joshua long before he fought him last Saturday night. Ruiz Jr. preferred a fight against IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Joshua (22-1, 21 KOs) over WBC champion Deontay Wilder, as he saw flaws in his game that he believed that he could capitalize on.
Ruiz Jr. stopped Joshua in the seventh round to win his three titles last Saturday night at Madison Square Garden in New York. The fight was shown on DAZN. The win for Ruiz Jr. made history for him, making him the first Mexican heavyweight world champion.
Ruiz got an estimated payday of $2.5 million for the Joshua fight, according to ESPN.
Fighting in front of a packed MSG crowd of 20,201 fans, Ruiz Jr. put Joshua down four times in the fight in stopping him in the seventh round. Joshua had knocked Ruiz down in the third round with a thunderous left hook that was thrown with blinding speed and huge power.
Ruiz miraculously got up off the deck and went on the attack, dropping Joshua twice in the round in a case of payback. The downside of Ruiz’s victory last Saturday was it erased the possibility of a unification fight taking place between Joshua and WBC champion Deontay Wilder.
A huge congratulations to you @Andy_destroyer1 for your upset win last night. You’ve been blessed to come out of the struggle and to become the 1st Mexican Heavyweight Champion Ever!
Wow, that’s amazing and I’m wishing you many more blessings to come. pic.twitter.com/IqdRX6Yzo0— Deontay Wilder (@BronzeBomber) June 2, 2019
Ruiz didn’t like Joshua overlooking him
“I think they looked over me. I think they should have paid attention to me first before looking to fight Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury, because I feel they looked over me and started planning fights instead of focusing on me,” said Ruiz Jr. at the post-fight news conference. “So we got the victory, and we’re happy. I just think that with the way that I look, and the extra flab that I carry [it caused Joshua and Hearn to overlook him].”
Although Joshua and his promoter Eddie Hearn both maintained that they weren’t looking passed Ruiz in the build up to the fight last Saturday, it was clear that’s exactly what they were doing. They were openly trying to encourage Wilder and Tyson Fury to agree to a fight later this year. Joshua and his team might have realized how Ruiz would take them openly overlooking him with their planning for other fights. Ruiz used this to become more motivated to win the fight.
Ruiz came into the fight with only one loss on his record, a close 12 round majority decision loss to Joseph Parker in December 2016 in a fight that took place in New Zealand. Ruiz fought well enough to deserve a victory in that fight, but he was fighting Parker in his home country.
So instead of Joshua viewing Ruiz as an undefeated fighter, he saw him as a challenger that had been beaten by one of his past victims, Parker. That might have played into the mind of Joshua when he was preparing for the fight. It’s harder to get motivated to fight someone that has been beaten by one of your past opponents.
Joshua couldn’t handle Ruiz’s speed
“I didn’t want to lose much weight after the [Alexander] Dimtrenko fight. I wanted to be strong. I actually gained five more pounds to be even stronger, because Anthony’s a big guy,” said Ruiz in talking about his weight for the Joshua fight. “Now that I have this time, I want to get in really good shape, and look like a Mexican Anthony. I think the speed and my style got to him,” said Ruiz in talking about his win over Joshua.
Joshua wasn’t ready for Ruiz to get up off the canvas, and fight with the intensity that he showed after his third round knockdown. Joshua knocked Ruiz flat in the third. The punch that Joshua hit Ruiz with, a massive left hook, caught him perfectly to the head, and bowled him over. You can’t blame Joshua for believing that Ruiz would be in no condition to defend himself after he got back up.
Ruiz looked a little hurt when he was back on his feet, but his power and speed was still there. Joshua forgot about his defense in his rush to finish Ruiz, and this left him open for a left hook that landed flush. Ruiz Jr. looked like he threw with on instinct. Joshua was unloading on him, and he threw a left that connected with a thud on the side of Joshua’s head. His legs went immediately. Once Ruiz that Joshua was hurt, he began to tee off on him, and put him down for the first of two times in the round.
“I don’t think they knew I was going to come out like that and make it difficult for Anthony,” said Ruiz. “Before this fight in all my interviews, I said I would rather fight Anything than any other heavyweight out there that had belts. I knew I could beat him. I knew my abilities was going to give him trouble. The speed; I knew he opened up too much. Of course, the speed, the movement [was too much for Joshua].”
“I could have been more aggressive, but I wanted to take my time each round, and let my hands go when he let his hands go. I think that’s when I caught him as well. The body shots [gave him problems]. He’s a warrior. He got up every single time I put him down. I think we were both warriors in there,” said Ruiz.
The hand speed of Ruiz was more than what Joshua was ready for, especially when he started throwing combinations. Before this fight, Joshua had fought a lot slower guys, who he had a speed advantage against. Ruiz was a different type of fighter, and he wasn’t ready for that type of guy.
Joshua’s loss could help his popularity
In some ways, the loss for Joshua could help his career, because it brings some badly needed drama to his future fights. It was an exciting fight to watch from start to finish. Joshua will likely more boxing fans interested in seeing his rematch with Ruiz than they otherwise would if he had beaten him.
Fans will be tuning in to see if Joshua can win the rematch, and they’ll want to see if his chin or stamina will betray him again. If Joshua had beaten Ruiz in a predictable manner, the fans would be as excited about his next fight. Joshua’s career will be on the line for his rematch with Ruiz, and that makes it a lot more compelling for fans to want to watch him on DAZN and Sky Box Office.
“I told everybody in the build up, this is a tougher fight than Jarrell Miller,” said Hearn at the post-fight news conference in talking about Ruiz Jr. “Andy’s faster, he’s got better movement, and I think he’s got a better boxing IQ. We knew that. It’s no problem. The Miller fight was much easier than Andy Ruiz. But we felt Anthony was the best heavyweight in the world, and believed he would win the fight. We thought he [Joshua] would [win] in the third round, but Andy was exceptional,” said Hearn.
It’s debatable whether Ruiz is a tougher opponent than Jarrell Miller. The way Joshua looked last Saturday, he would have lost to Miller as well. Joshua didn’t look like he was all there. In comparing how Joshua used to fight earlier in his career, he seems to have lost punch output, and his attacked oriented style of fighting. They saw that Joshua was knocked down in sparring this week. If that’s that’s the case, maybe that’s why he wasn’t aggressive against Ruiz. Perhaps Joshua’s confidence was shot.
“This is what I said going in, ‘this is going to be my victory,'” said Ruiz. “I’m not going to let those belts [IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight titles] go. I’ve got to talk to my team, and figure it out,” about the possibility of a future unification fight against WBC champion Deontay Wilder.
It’s going to be hard for Ruiz to beat Joshua in the UK, because it’s very likely the fight will take place in one of the giant football stadiums. There will likely be a massive crowd of 70,000+ fans rooting for Joshua. He’s the type of fighter that is more dangerous when he’s got a huge crowd behind him.