Off Topic Joshua stopped by Ruiz

Tko in 7th round. That'll cost him multi-millions...

 

Ruiz training regime of Pie 'n Mash might catch on...

 

Lucrative re-match in Wembley I guess. Meh.

 

I saw the weigh in and thought I’m not gonna waste my hard earned on such a terrible mismatch (now you know why I don’t gamble).

 

My eldest follows boxing and he predicted that this may well happen.

 

Did he have a few quid on? I backed the girl who lost, apparently very unfairly, to Katie Taylor.

 

I think he did yeah.

 

Joshua described this as a ‘minor setback’. Hmmm.

I like what Ruiz has been saying, he seems like a good bloke.

 

My lad ( the boxer) said the same.
I told him he might be a boxer but knew **** all and AJ would slaughter him.....obviously I’m no boxer

 

That was a bizarre decision....she beat Taylor hands down in everyone’s card except the 3 judges. I felt sorry for her afterwards ‘cos she was in tears and knew she should of been the rightful victor

 

For those who haven't seen it...

 

My lad has just been explaining to me how Ruiz fought AJ perfectly and how he adapted his style to suit not having a height or reach advantage.
It looked to me like Ruiz was just swinging but seems I know **** all.

I’ll stick to knowing **** all about football from now on

 

He’s a chunky monkey but he has fast hands, and obviously a lot of courage.

I’m pretty ignorant but my lad assures me that, if his head is in shape and his body close to it, Fury is the best at the moment. He certainly looked well off 100% fighting shape when he drew with Wilder.

 

I know very little about boxing but how did that tub of lard knock out Joshua?!

 

I’m told it was by fighting to his own strengths, getting in close and not allowing AJ to exploit his reach advantage.
As Stan says, the fella has fast hands and has power.

 

If you teach a 19 stone bloke how to hit he’s going to be able to hit anyone pretty hard.

 

Stuff I’ve read says Joshua’s head wasn’t right from the beginning. He himself said he was fighting for the first time without feeling exhausted from the preparation (which he obviously thought was a good thing). Might have also thought his height and reach would be everything he needed against Ruiz, and had no idea who he was fighting.

 

An assistant of mine ran a boxing club in Camberwell and we were discussing Frank Bruno before his title shot against Tim Witherspoon, he said super athletic heavyweights with bulky muscle like Bruno often run out of stamina, whereas the more portly types get energy from their reserves of fat. He was proved right when after dominating his fight with his jab Bruno was KO'd in the 11th round when he tired quite dramatically.

Joshua since beating Klitchscho has been far less attacking in his fights and has often looked like he was just doing enough rather than dominating. Whether his training is suspect he clearly has lost his way. His rematch clause means that he has nowhere to go if he fails again. The heavyweight scene is livening up and there's another top youngster coming through called Daniel Dubois, reportedly he floored Joshua in sparring a couple of years ago and will be fast tracked towards a British title fight before this year is out...

 

Bit about the energy thing makes sense. Muscle stores glycogen which is readily and efficiently released for fight or flight and the fat is reserve energy BUT reserve energy is burnt much less efficiently than glycogen.
Maybe AJ was complacent.
As with Stan, I really don't know much about boxing.

 

I used to do a bit of boxing myself 10 years ago, and I'm a huge fan of the sport.

Ruiz Jr took this fight on 6 weeks notice, so he'd have adapted his tactics to essentially go all out for the finish, meaning he'd have had way less pressure on him. He'd have trained for 8 rounds max. In the fight itself, what he did perfectly was consistently meet AJ in the middle of the ring, drawing him into fighting inside and trading where he'd time his counters and back his chin to hold up should he get tagged in the crossfire.

This was no overweight chump, he has an amateur record of 105-5 (compared to Joshua's 40-3), and his only professional loss to Joseph Parker was controversial to say the least. Vastly more experienced than AJ, and took his opportunity with aplomb.

Joshua has the capability to beat him if he fights like the bigger man and utilizes his jab through the early and middle rounds, and catch Ruiz Jr when he tires in the later rounds. I guess we'll see in the rematch this year.