By Charles Brun: Andy Ruiz Jr. says he hopes he didn’t ruin the career of former IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua in his seventh round knockout win over him two years ago.
Joshua (24-2, 22 KOs) has looked like the shell of the fighter he once was since his devastating knockout loss to Ruiz Jr . Andy says he’s hoping AJ can pull himself out of it and recapture his titles because he wants a trilogy match against the big 6’6″ Brit.
Right now, they’re 1-1, and a rubber match would decide who the top dog is between them.
On Monday, Ruiz Jr. sounded a little guilty in reacting to Tim Bradley saying that Joshua looks scared and gunshy after losing to him in their first fight in June 2019. Bradley only pointed out what the average boxing fan noticed a long time ago about Joshua.
AJ looks like he’s reliving that traumatic event he went through in his loss to Ruiz, and the memories seem to be triggered each time he faces aggression/adversity. We saw that in Joshua’s recent fight with Oleksandr Usyk.
He was doing fine until Usyk hit him hard with two stinging left hands early in the contest. From that point on, Joshua looked mentally shot.
Joshua isn’t thinking about Ruiz right now, though, as he’s coming off a crushing 12 round unanimous decision loss to Usyk last September in London, England.
AJ has already active the rematch clause to force Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs) to fight him again, and they’ll be meeting in March 2022 for the second fight. If Joshua loses again to Usyk, the last thing AJ will want is to face Ruiz Jr. again.
“It’s kind of harsh Tim Bradley saying that but you know, he knows a lot about boxing, and he reads a lot of fighters,” said Andy Ruiz Jr. to Brian Custer’s Last Stand Podcast on a remark made by Bradley that Anthony Joshua looks scared to get hit since his loss to him in 2019.
“He [Bradley] knows when someone is hurt and not doing the right things that they used to do before, but I don’t know what to say about that. It’s crazy.
“I wouldn’t want to destroy anybody’s career at all, but I can see him being gunshy and hesitating a little bit, and I can see him getting hurt. Maybe he’s a little scared of getting hurt because he doesn’t want the same thing happening. It’s normal for fighters, and I think he needs to get his confidence back,” said Ruiz.
Joshua looks like a soldier who came out of a terrible warzone and has flashbacks of what he went through.
It might be asking too much of Joshua for him to erase the images of what he went through against Ruiz, and, likely, he’s now ruined from experience.
It’s not just mental, though, for Joshua. His punch resistance looks gone after his loss to Ruiz, which added to him being gunshy.
“No, I wouldn’t say I ruined him [Joshua]. I wouldn’t want to ruin nobody’s career, but I do agree with Timothy Bradley,” said Ruiz. He [Joshua] is gunshy. He is hesitating. He’s thinking too much instead of going in there and being the dog that you are.
“He won the rematch against me because I didn’t do my part. That’s the only reason,” said Andy Ruiz in explaining why he lost his rematch with Joshua in December 2019.
“I didn’t do my part. If I had stuck to the game plan and did the same thing that I did in the first fight, trust me, I would have beat him. But I had to learn the hard way.
“I had to get back on the ladders and get back on top, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do. I just hope Anthony Joshua overcomes this and he becomes champion again so I can take those belts back,” said Ruiz.
