By Scott Gilfoid: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is advising Anthony Joshua that he’s making a stupid mistake in choosing to face Andy Ruiz Jr. in an immediate rematch later this year. Joshua will get beaten just like before when he faces Ruiz later this year, according to Arum. It’s dumb for Joshua be put back in with Ruiz, says Arum. Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn doesn’t mind taking the risk though. He thinks AJ will win. If Eddie’s wrong, Joshua’s career may be on skid row. George Foreman thinks it’s a horrible idea for Joshua to fight Ruiz in an immediate rematch.
Arum says it was an “impostor” that lost to Ruiz Jr. on June 1. In other words, it wasn’t the real Joshua that was bounced on the deck four times by Ruiz.
Arum thinks that Joshua (22-1, 21 KOs) should take a couple of tune-up fights first before he attempts to avenge his loss to Ruiz Jr. (33-1, 22 KOs) to try and recapture his IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight titles he lost this month by a seventh round knockout on June 1 at Madison Square Garden in New York. But as the saying goes, ‘People who are overconfident or too arrogant are likely to fail.’
Joshua and his promoter Eddie Hearn think it was just a fluke thing that Ruiz got the victory. They’re both blaming the loss on Ruiz landing a single left hook that hurt Joshua in the third round. That’s their official excuse for why things unraveled quickly for the British fighter.
Arum: That wasn’t the real Joshua that lost to Ruiz
“The Joshua that I saw on June 1st was an impostor. It wasn’t Joshua. It was somebody else,” said Top Rank boss Bob Arum to IFL TV. “The way he was acting before the fight, the way he carried himself in the fight, that was NOT Anthony Joshua. I don’t want to take anything away from Andy Ruiz, but he didn’t beat Anthony Joshua. He beat somebody else. That wasn’t Joshua. It was NOT Joshua! It was a different fighter. Andy Ruiz is not competitive with Joshua,” said Arum.
It was the real Joshua alright against Ruiz. It was simply a case of Joshua being exposed by a fighter with a better chin, faster hands, and the ability to throw combinations. When you add all that up, it spells D-E-F-E-A-T for AJ. In addition to all those things Joshua had going against him on the night, he also had to deal with Ruiz’s counter punching ability. Virtually every time Joshua threw anything, Ruiz was in his face countering him with shots. When I say shots, I mean more than one. Joshua was getting lit up with multuple punches by the 29-year-old Ruiz.
Throughout Joshua’s career, he’d been fighting opposition that threw only one shot at a time, and they NEVER countered him. Yeah, Joshua fought Wladimir Klitschko, but he was 40-years-old, coming off of a two-year layoff, and a loss to Tyson Fury. This wasn’t the 28-year-old Wladimir that Joshua fought. Had it been a young Klitschko with trainer Emanuel Steward in his corner, Joshua would have had a short one-year title reign instead of a three-year reign. Joshua just isn’t that good. The chin, the stamina, and the dreadful mobility.
Arum should have kept Ruiz with his Top Rank stable
What a lot of boxing fans don’t know is Ruiz Jr. used to be one of Arum’s Top Rank stable fighters. Unfortunately, Ruiz Jr. didn’t do much with Top Rank. He was matched selectively against weak opposition like Tor Hamer, Joe Hanks, Siarhei Liakhovich, Raphael Zumbano and Franklin Lawrence. Ruiz’s potential was wasted. He could have done a lot more with Top Rank if they’d put him in with good opponents. When Ruiz Jr. was finally matched up against a good basic fighter in Joseph Parker, he lost a highly controversial 12 round decision to him in 2016 in New Zealand. Boxing News 24 had Ruiz beating Parker by a 10 rounds to 2 score. Parker looked lost against Ruiz, and the scoring was out of this world bad.
Although Ruiz Jr. appeared to easily win the fight, the judges gave it to the home fighter Parker. Ruiz didn’t fight again after that loss until 2018 when he defeated Devin Vargas. Ruiz has since beaten Kevin Johnson, Alexander Dimitrenko and Joshua.
Arum thinks that Ruiz isn’t a puncher, but I guess Joshua would disagree with that opinion. Ruiz may not possess the punching power of Deontay Wilder or a prime Mike Tyson, but he hits hard enough. Ruiz’s combination punching and his hand speed is quite good.
Arum says Joshua will lose to Ruiz again
“The same thing that happened at the Garden,” said Arum when asked what will be the outcome of Joshua facing Ruiz in the rematch. “The stupidest thing they could do is put Joshua back in with Andy Ruiz. Based on what I know of the sport, you’re going to get the same results, because this wasn’t like Lennox Lewis and Hasim Rahman, where Rahman hit him with one lucky punch and knocked him cold, and it wasn’t with Oliver McCall. In the rematches, Lennox came through both times, but this [Joshua vs. Ruiz] was different,” said Arum.
Rahman and McCall weren’t same type of talents as Ruiz. Lewis had an easy time beating those guys in rematches, because they were both flawed fighters. Joshua is going to have huge problems against Ruiz in the rematch in November or December.
Arum: There’s no hurry for Joshua to fight Ruiz again
Joshua doesn’t have to face Ruiz right away, according to Arum. He thinks that the fight should be delayed for a while so that Joshua can get his bearings under him he faces Ruiz again.
“This was a guy that was knocked down four times by Ruiz, who doesn’t have the ability to knock down ham & egg guys,” said Arum. “So that memory of getting knocked down by Ruiz stays with a fighter. I would think that Eddie Hearn would do much better giving Joshua a couple of fights getting him ready. There’s no hurry. So he’s giving up the immediate opportunity to fight for a title, but I’m not his promoter. I’m not his adviser, so he’s not going to listen to me anyway. I think Andy Ruiz beats him again when the fight goes on at the end of the year,” said Arum.
So there it is. Ruiz will Joshua again when the two face each other again, and that’s the end of the story. Arum has spoken, and he knows boxing like the back of his hand. Oh well, Joshua can’t say he wasn’t warned.
