Teddy Atlas: Joshua KOs Ruiz in late rounds

By Boxing News - 12/03/2019 - Comments

By Charles Brun: Teddy Atlas believes that Anthony Joshua is going to get redemption in beating Andy Ruiz Jr in their rematch this Saturday night. According to Atlas, Joshua doesn’t want to behave badly like he did in his loss to Ruiz Jr. (33-1, 22 KOs) earlier this year on June 1 in New York, and he’s going to fight a lot better in the rematch.

He expects Joshua to take Ruiz into the late rounds, and knock him out.

Atlas blames Joshua’s previous loss to Ruiz on him having a lot of money in the bank, and that he didn’t have the drive to fight hard enough to win. Teddy notes that Joshua got up off the deck to beat 40-year-old Wladimir Klitschko in their fight in 2017.

Joshua stops Ruiz late – Atlas

“He knows people saw him behave bad, and he wants to behave good now,” said Teddy Atlas to THE FIGHT with Teddy Atlas. “He wants to behave better now like a fighter. He’s going to go in there, and act like a fighter. I’m going with Joshua on redemption.

“It ends with Joshua dropping Ruiz, putting him on the floor again, but Ruiz battles back and it gets into the late rounds, and Joshua stops him late,” said Atlas.

Joshua wasn’t as wealthy back then when he fought Klitschko compared to when he fought Ruiz, and Atlas thinks that helped AJ get up off the deck in the 6th. Nevertheless, Joshua probably would have lost to Wladimir if the Ukrainian hadn’t decided to try and box his way to a 12 round decision AFTER he’d knocked Joshua down in the 6th and had him GASSED out.

Wladimir no longer had the killer instinct by the time he fought Joshua. His trainer Emanuel Steward had passed away in 2012, and Wladimir lost to Tyson Fury a year earlier. He had fought in an entire year when he took the Joshua fight.

Joshua should have lost to Wladimir

Wladimir didn’t bother taking a tune-up to get ready for the match, and he agreed to fight Joshua in London. With all the things that Wladimir going against him – being 40-years-old, inactive, coming off of a loss to Fury and fighting in London, it’s a miracle that he had Joshua on the verge of being knocked out. If you give Wladimir back his youth, his killer instinct, his old trainer Steward, and put that fight in a NEUTRAL venue, there’s no question that Joshua would have lost.

Joshua wouldn’t have beaten a prime Wladimir in this writer’s opinion, especially with Steward in his corner. Basically, Wladimir did everything he could to GIVE Joshua the win on that night. Why else would Wladimir do all the things that he did. He Joshua hurt, but then he backed off thought he could win a decision in LONDON. What a bizarre move on Wladimir’s part. So when Teddy talks about Joshua being a different fighter in the Klitschko fight, and somehow glorifying what he did, he’s way off.

Joshua hasn’t improved since Klitschko fight

That version of Joshua was just as flawed as the one that Ruiz knocked out. The only difference is Wladimir didn’t have the sense enough to know that he HAD to go for the knockout once he had Joshua hurt. Wladimir forgot where he was, and didn’t realize he was in London, and that might not get the decision if it went 12 rounds. I mean, Joshua won his controversial gold medal in the London Olympics in 2012.

For most fighters, when they hurt an opponent, they try and finish them. Klitschko did the opposite. He hurt Joshua, and then chose to let him off the hook, because he thought he could win a decision. Ruiz Jr. didn’t make the same mistake that Wladimir did when he hurt Joshua in round 3, and had him gassed out. If Ruiz had chosen to do what Wladimir did, he probably would have lost to Joshua.

No sparring partners were sent home says Joshua

“I don’t try to knockout my sparring partner. There here to make me better, so none of them have been sent home,” said Joshua to Behind The Gloves.

Joshua has dismissed the talk from one of his sparring partners, who said that he’d been knocking guys down, and guys were being sent home. It looks like that story wasn’t true. Joshua trying to beat up his short, fat, 2nd tier sparring partners wouldn’t make sense, because these weren’t elite level fighters to begin with. They were just chubby guys brought in because they had a physique similar to Ruiz. Why would Joshua want to beat up guys that aren’t world class, and likely never will be.

Ruiz confident about his conditioning

“We’ve been sparring 10-12 rounds. I’m really confident about my condition,” said Ruiz to secondsout. “I want to remain as champion,and I know he’s going to be prepared, and that gives me the extra motivation as well. And I have to be alert. I can’t take this fight as a joke, because I don’t want to lose my belts that I’ve been working my whole life for. I’m going to be the same.

“At the weigh-in, I’m going to be 267, 268. I want to be strong. And I don’t want to feel weak. I want to feel strong, and have heavy hits. I’m a different fighter. I like to throw combinations, and I think my type of style is going to be perfect for whatever AJ is going to bring,” said Ruiz.

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Andy is going to come into the rematch with Joshua around the same weight as last time, and he believes it’s going to be the same outcome. If Joshua is going to try and tie Ruiz up for 12 rounds or hold, it might not work. In order to grab Ruiz, Joshua will leave himself open for a fraction of a second.

That’s going to allow Ruiz to light him up with combinations. If Joshua holds a lot, hes going to give Ruiz countless chances to land his combinations while he’s attempting to grab.