By Charles Brun: Deontay Wilder says he’s deeply disappointed with how IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (22-1, 21 KOs) quit in the seventh round last Saturday night in his loss to challenger Andy Ruiz Jr. (33-1, 22 KOs) at Madison Square Garden in New York.
The referee had to stop the fight when Joshua made it obvious that he didn’t want to continue fighting after he’d been knocked down twice by the wide-bodied 29-year-old Ruiz Jr. As far as Wilder’s concerned, Joshua “quit” in the fight, and is now a “broken man” mentally.
None of what happened last Saturday night is surprising to Wilder, who feels Joshua was “gifted” a gold medal in the 2012 London Olympics after winning controversial decisions against Cuba’s Erislandy Savon and Italy’s Roberto Cammarelle. Many fans thought Joshua was beaten by both of those fighters in the 2012 Olympics.
“There’s no safe haven no more. They’ve been saving that boy,” Wilder said to 78 Sports TV about Joshua following his seventh round knockout loss to Ruiz Jr. “I think he’s a broken man. At least Frank Bruno got KOd by Tyson, he’s worse than Bruno. He’s broken man. [Boxing is] 96% mental, and 4% physical. I’m not upset about the money. The most thing I’m upset about is he quit! He quit! When I’m in the ring, I don’t mean good for nobody. You’re going to have to kill me in the ring. He ain’t been talking. His promoter [Eddie Hearn] has been talking. He can’t fight for him,” said Wilder.
Joshua’s loss hurts Wilder as well
Wilder is gloating now, but this defeat will ultimately result in less money for him when the times comes for him and Joshua to face each other in the ring. What could hurt things each more if Joshua and his promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing want an immediate rematch with Ruiz Jr. in the UK.
It’s admirable that Joshua wants to fight Ruiz Jr. again, but there’s a huge potential downside of him taking that fight right away. A second loss for Joshua will destroy his career, and take away whatever interest there was from fans in a fight with Wilder. Hearn is a clever promoter, but he’s not going to be able to rejuvenate Joshua’s career if he gets beaten by Ruiz Jr. a second time.
Joshua showed two MAJOR flaws against Ruiz Jr. that are things he can’t fix:
– Stamina problems
– Poor punch resistance
These are things that Joshua won’t be able to ever fix. He’s been getting hurt in fights since 2009 when he fought Dillian Whyte for the first tie. Back then, Joshua’s stamina wasn’t as bad as it is now, because he weighed around 220 pounds. Joshua is now close to 250 pounds, and his stamina is horrible. The 2009 version of Joshua would have likely easily knocked out the 2019 version of himself if he’d been inside the ring last Saturday night.
Joshua looked like he couldn’t throw more than a handful of punching without gassing out, which is what helped contribute to his loss. Joshua looked exhausted after expending energy in trying to knockout Ruiz Jr. Joshua’s cardiovascular system is not suited for him to fight at the elite level of the heavyweight division right now. Perhaps that could change if Joshua lost 30 pounds of muscle by focusing on running a lot, dieting, and staying away from weight lifting. Joshua has to do something, because his performance last night showed that he’s not cut out to fight at the upper levels of the heavyweight division due to his dreadful punch resistance and conditioning problems.
“The way that he’s been holding up this fight, and talking all this stupid s–t,” said Wilder about Joshua and his Matchroom promoter Hearn. “They cheated. He should have been beaten in the Olympics. The Cuban [Erislandy Savon] beat him. They gave it to him because it was in his country. His country [UK] hosted it. They weren’t preparing him to become a true champion. You do NOT quit! The worse thing you can do is. quit. He was under so much pressure worrying about me. He was not mentally strong. He was created. I’m upset not because he lost, but because he quit. [Wladimir] Klitschko was supposed to have beaten him a long time ago. Dillian Whyte, if he had done what he was supposed to do, he would have saved us all the hassle,” said Wilder.
Deontay brings up a good point in talking about Joshua’s fights against Wladimir Klitschko and Dillian Whyte. Joshua looked like he would have easily lost to Wladimir if the Ukrainian fighter had gone after him once he had him hurt in the sixth. Wladimir backed off and decided to box after he knocked Joshua down in the sixth. Wladimir’s trainer Johathon Banks tried to encourage to finish Joshua, but he wouldn’t listen, and and chose instead to box.
It was a mistake on Wladimir’s part that cost him the fight. Ruiz Jr. wasn’t going to make that same mistake last night once he had Joshua down twice in round three. Ruiz Jr. finished Joshua four rounds later in knocking him down twice in the seventh round to get the stoppage. Dillian Whyte could have knocked Joshua out in their fight in December 2015 after hurting him in the second round. However, Whyte’s left shoulder was injured, and he gassed out. Joshua took advantage of Whyte’s stamina problems and shoulder injury to get back into the fight and stop him in round seven. It was surprising at the time that it took Joshua four rounds before he finally got his second wind.
Wilder: Joshua has been having stamina problems
“The man has been having stamina problems. Now the world knows they didn’t want to come see Deontay Wilder,” said Deontay. “Now it’s understood the man didn’t want to fight me. He would have been out of there in the first round. It was someone smaller than him. He looked out of shape,” said Wilder in talking about Ruiz Jr. “I’m so disappointed. I’m so upset. The one thing you don’t do in life is quit. The cash cow, the man that brings in 90,000 fans; that s–t don’t matter. AJ, Hearn, welcome to America. What are you going to say now? They’re [the boxing fans] are going to be jumping ship. The ones that don’t like Fury are going to jump towards him. All you fake fans, you can jump on Tyson Fury, and then I’ll knock him out again. Now we know who the baddest man on the planet is,” said Wilder.
It’ll be interesting to see if Tyson Fury is able to gain a lot of new British boxing fans that have jumped ship from Joshua to him. A lot of the fans will give Joshua the benefit of the doubt, and perhaps see it as a case of him overlooking a dangerous opponent.
Wladmir overlooked the dangerous southpaw Corrie Sanders in 2002, and was knocked out in the second round. Sanders’ physique looked flabby, and few fans gave him a shot at beating Wladimir. Like what we saw last night with Ruiz Jr., Sanders jumped on Wladimir and took him out with fast combinations. Saunders’ hand speed was too much for Wladimir. Ruiz Jr. was too fast, and his combination punching clearly took Joshua by surprise. Joshua didn’t realize how ferocious Ruiz Jr. was until too late.