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By Dan Ambrose:  Top Rank boss Bob Arum said his former fighter Andy Ruiz Jr. looked like a “Fat pig” in losing his IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight titles to Anthony Joshua last Saturday night in Saudi Arabia. Ruiz had the responsibility to himself and to the boxing public to come into the Joshua fight in shape, but instead he failed to train hard and came into the fight looking flabby.

His weight was 15 lbs more than what he weighed for the first fight with Joshua last June. Ruiz said later that he thought he could still beat Joshua even with his weight being heavier than the first match.

Joshua receives no credit by Arum for his win

Arum says he can’t give Joshua (23-1, 21 KOs) any special recognition for beating Ruiz (33-2, 22 KOs) by a 12 round decision, because other fighters would have taken advantage of his poor physical shape, and knocked him out.

Joshua didn’t even try to knockout Ruiz, and that’s the tragedy of it all. British heavyweight fought like he was afraid of the 283 lbs Ruiz, and he stayed on the run for the full 12 rounds.

Arum says his fighter Kubrat Pulev will be Joshua’s next opponent, and he believes he’ll beat him. Pulev (28-1, 14 KOs) is the IBF mandatory challenger. He earned that position by defeating Hughie Fury by a 12 round unanimous decision in October 2018.

Arum: Ruiz would have lost to any decent heavyweight 

“Fighters have responsibilities not only to themselves, but to the public, and Ruiz abdicated those responsibilities by coming in and looking like a FAT pig, and expecting nevertheless that he would be able to defend his titles,” said Top Rank promoter Bob Arum to Fighthype.

“That wasn’t fight. Any decent heavyweight would have beaten Andy Ruiz that night. You know it, and I know it. So, Joshua did what he had to do, but not accolades on him. A lot of the heavyweights seeing the shape Ruiz was in, would have gone for the knockout, and knocked him out,” said Arum.

Arum isn’t exaggerating by saying Ruiz would have lost to any decent heavyweight in the sport, because he looked terrible. Ruiz, 31, was carrying too much weight for him to give Joshua a decent, and that made it easy for him to outbox him.

Just saw @Andy_destroyer1 saying not being fully prepared and in shape for rematch could have happened to anyone. 🤦🏾‍♂️ Not true. That’s a bad excuse. One person was serious about those belts and the other wasn’t. Simple as that!

— Lennox Lewis (@LennoxLewis) December 11, 2019

Arum predicts Kubrat Pulev will beat Joshua

“Eventually, maybe,” said Arum when asked if the winner of the Deontay Wilder vs. Tyson Fury fight will face Joshua. “I got a fighter that I think can beat Joshua because of his style,” said Arum about Kubrat Pulev. “He’s next up for Joshua. He’s the IBF mandatory, Pulev, the Bulgarian.

“So let’s see if Joshua is even around when Wilder and Fury finish their battles. Yeah,” Arum said when asked if IBF mandatory Pulev comes first for Joshua rather than WBO mandatory Oleksandr Usyk. ‘They’ve been on the books, the IBF, forever for that mandatory. So that would come first, and then Usyk. The winner would have to fight Usyk,” said Arum.

Pulev, 38, didn’t perform at a high level in his last fight in defeating Rydell Booker by a 10 round unanimous decision on November 9. The power, speed and defensive skills weren’t there for the 6’4 1/2″ Pulev. If he can’t look better than that against Joshua, he’ll be taken out quickly.

Naoya Inoue will be ready to fight in April

“He had a terrific fight with [Nonito] Donaire, but he got busted up pretty good,” said Arum about Inoue. “So they tell me now from Japan that he’ll be ready to go in April, so that’s what we’re doing. We’re getting a fight in April, and we’re hoping to have him fight in one of the MGM properties in Las Vegas…He’s a huge box office star in Japan. I think he’ll be a big star in the United States, and around the world. That’s what we intend to do,” said Arum.

IBF/WBA bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue (19-0, 16 KOs) has a broken nose a cracked right orbital bone that needs to heal from his November 7th fight against Nonito Donaire before he’ll be ready to return to the ring in April 2020. Inoue has his IBF mandatory Michael Dasmarinas due. If he has to face him next, it won’t attract a lot of interest. Donaire would like a rematch, but that’s probably not going to happen. Inoue wants to unify the 118-lb division by going after the WBC champion Nordine Oubaali and WBO champ John Riel Casimero.