SWC75
Bored Historian
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2011
- Messages
- 33,987
- Like
- 65,552
The fight was mostly a snoozefest. Joshua lost weight and stopped working out with weights on the advice of former foe Klitchko. After what happened last time he didn't want to trade punches with Ruiz. He came out thinner-looking and more mobile. He showed lateral movement I didn't know he had and kept sticking Ruiz wit a stiff jab, (you could see the sweat come flying off the fat man's brow. Joshua opened a cut over Ruiz's left eye. Occasionally he would hit him with a power punch but always backed off rather than going for the knock-out.
Ruiz, for his part, was supposed to show up for training came in July but was AWOL until September. he was a flabby 268 for the first fight and came in 15 pounds heavier than that. He proclaimed his intent to "stick to the fight plan" but there didn't seem to be much of one. Ruiz was unable to use footwork to cut off Joshua and just plodded after him, absorbing jab after jab. He took to waving Joshua in, hoping Anthony's ego would get the better of him but Joshua was the one sticking to a fight plan. Ruiz tried to duplicate the overhand right that hit Joshua at the temple in the first fight but Joshua kept ducking under it, making it a "rabbit" punch and drawing warnings for Ruiz to stop it from the referee. Very occasionally, the two fighters would exchange a combination but Joshua always broke it off to resume his fight plan.
I gave Joshua 10 rounds and Ruiz two, (#4 and #8). That's the most he deserved by any interpretation That's 118-110, which two of the judges also had, (the third was worse: 119-109). Joshua now gets back the three titles he lost to Ruiz while Ruiz, having had his 15 minutes of fame, should now fade into oblivion. I doubt Wilder or Fury are shaking in their boots over what they saw. It wasn't a Lennox Lewis revenge knockout type of fight. Joshua might use his new found boxing ability to keep away from Wilder's big punch- for a while. But he still doesn't look like the formidable fighter he was supposed to be.
Ruiz, for his part, was supposed to show up for training came in July but was AWOL until September. he was a flabby 268 for the first fight and came in 15 pounds heavier than that. He proclaimed his intent to "stick to the fight plan" but there didn't seem to be much of one. Ruiz was unable to use footwork to cut off Joshua and just plodded after him, absorbing jab after jab. He took to waving Joshua in, hoping Anthony's ego would get the better of him but Joshua was the one sticking to a fight plan. Ruiz tried to duplicate the overhand right that hit Joshua at the temple in the first fight but Joshua kept ducking under it, making it a "rabbit" punch and drawing warnings for Ruiz to stop it from the referee. Very occasionally, the two fighters would exchange a combination but Joshua always broke it off to resume his fight plan.
I gave Joshua 10 rounds and Ruiz two, (#4 and #8). That's the most he deserved by any interpretation That's 118-110, which two of the judges also had, (the third was worse: 119-109). Joshua now gets back the three titles he lost to Ruiz while Ruiz, having had his 15 minutes of fame, should now fade into oblivion. I doubt Wilder or Fury are shaking in their boots over what they saw. It wasn't a Lennox Lewis revenge knockout type of fight. Joshua might use his new found boxing ability to keep away from Wilder's big punch- for a while. But he still doesn't look like the formidable fighter he was supposed to be.