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By Tim Royner: Tyson Fury is recommending that Anthony Joshua hang up his gloves if he loses the rematch to Andy Ruiz Jr. in November. Fury figures that Joshua lacks the chin, stamina, mobility, speed, and boxing skills to defeat Ruiz in the second fight.

Joshua (22-1, 21 KOs) has only lost once in his career, his promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing says. Despite the way he was blown out by the American Ruiz, Hearn doesn’t see Joshua’s situation nearly as dire as boxing fan do. Hearn thinks Joshua can easily turn things around in the rematch, and that’s why he’s so eager to make the fight. Hearn believes that Joshua simply had an off night, and was caught by a punch that he didn’t see coming in the third round from Ruiz.

“If he can’t beat Ruiz in the rematch he needs to retire, simple as,” said Fury to IFL TV. “Forget about it. Give it up. He’s done well out of it, he’s earned a few quid, he’s won a world title before and everything else that goes with it. So fair play to him.’ Addressing his own upcoming bout, Fury continued: ‘If I can’t beat Tom Schwarz, then I’ll retire too, so that will make two bums retired won’t it? Because there will be no point continuing, that’s the way I look at it,” said Fury.

Joshua isn’t going to retire if he loses to Ruiz in the rematch, according to promoter Eddie Hearn. He’s going to keep plugging along. It’ll just be a case of Joshua not having the right game to defeat Ruiz. Hearn will likely make sure he puts him in with guys with different styles. For example, we might not see Joshua fight anymore opponents that throw combinations, and fast hands. Nevertheless, the blueprint is already there for how to beat Joshua. Just throw sustained combinations one after another, and he’ll fall apart. The lack of stamina is also something that Ruiz exposed in Joshua. Other fighters will be looking to push Joshua to fight at a fast pace to get him to gas out.

Fury: Joshua must knockout Ruiz early

“He needs to knock him out and jump on him fast, because he’s a little fighting man,” said Fury to IFL TV in talking about Joshua’s best and only chance of beating Ruiz in the rematch. “He’s not a better boxer. He doesn’t have faster feet or faster hands to throw back combinations. So he’s coming off second best every single time. You can’t make a cart horse into a trotter,” said Fury when asked if Joshua can improve. “He doesn’t have the body type to move, slip and slide punches and be slick. He has the classic boxing style with his feet planted.”

Fury thinks Joshua must get to Ruiz as quick as possible in the rematch, because if he fails to do so, he’s going to get taken out once again.

Joshua making mistake in fighting Ruiz in rematch

Fury notes that Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko chose not to take rematches against fighters that beat them in the past. The one that fighter that was successful in taking an immediate rematch was Lennox Lewis, but that was against Hasim Rahman. There was less risk for Lewis in facing Rahman a second time than there will be for Joshua. Fury says that Joshua was completely dominated by Ruiz in every round of the fight on June 1 at Madison Square Garden in New York. Fury didn’t give Joshua one round in the contest before he was ultimately knocked out by Ruiz in the seventh round. As far as the knockout itself, Fury says Joshua quit. When the going got tough, Joshua bowed out by choosing not to come off the ropes. Fury feels that a fighter that quits once will quit again.

“If you look at history, you never do [take an immediate rematch against a fighter that beat you]. The ones that do usually get chinned,” said Fury.

Fury makes a lot of sense in mentioning how things go badly for a fighters that take immediate rematches. Joshua obviously is taking the immediate rematch, because it looked so bad for him to get taken out by a fighter like Ruiz, who isn’t body beautiful, and who destroyed him so badly. This isn’t the type of fight that Joshua could walk away from. Wladimir chose not to take rematches against journeyman Ross Puritty and knockout artist Corrie Sanders, and Vitali walked away without trying to avenge his loss to Chris Byrd.

What made it easier for the Klitschkos to walk away from these fights is one of them avenged the loss. In other words, Vitali avenged Wladimir’s defeats by stopping Puritty and Sanders in one-sided fights. Wladimir avenged Vitali’s loss to Byrd by defeating him by a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision. Joshua doesn’t have a brother that can take care of Ruiz Jr. for him like the Klitschkos. Joshua pretty much has to fight Ruiz in an immediate rematch, because he’ll look so bad if he doesn’t.

Fury: Joshua didn’t win one round against Ruiz

“I didn’t give Joshua one round in the fight. He was beat up,” said Fury about Joshua’s fight with Ruiz. “He quit. Once you’ve quit one time in your life, you’re finished. Anyone that fights Anthony Joshua just needs to bombard him with 25 left hooks. One of them will land, and it’ll be all over. In the meantime, he may tag you first. That’s why he’ll always be involved in exciting fights, because either I’m going to go or you’re going to go. In his last fight, after he took a couple of hits, his legs went as well. He can’t recover. The bubble has been burst. Everyone knows he can’t beat Tyson Fury, because he can’t beat a little fat man. I’ve offered to fight him 20 times, but when he comes offering me peanuts, there’s no business to be done,” said Fury.

Fury willing to fight Joshua if he rebuilds

“He has to get a couple of wins under his belt and convince the public that he’s a fighting man again,” said Fury about Joshua. “Go to school, learn what to do again. Get a bit of mental coaching, and that’s it. Try and make a comeback.”

It won’t be hard for Joshua to be rebuilt after a second loss to Ruiz. Hearn will need to back him off from fighting good opposition once again, and put him in with the type of guys he’d been matching him with his entire career. Joshua will do well if Hearn trots out Alexander Povetkin, Eric Molina and Carlos Takam type fighters.

“If he can’t make a comeback, if he can’t beat Andy Ruiz Jr., you ain’t going to do anything to Tyson Fury or Deontay Wilder or any other decent heavyweight in the world either,” said Fury. “If he can’t beat Ruiz in the rematch he’s done, finished, goodnight, bye-bye.”