By Keith Idec

Manny Robles believes he has a much better chance of guiding his challenger to an upset of Anthony Joshua on Saturday night than the last time one of his fighters faced the huge heavyweight champion.

Robles was Dominic Breazeale’s trainer when the then-undefeated contender traveled to London to square off against Great Britain’s biggest boxing star in June 2016. Joshua knocked down Breazeale twice and beat Breazeale by seventh-round technical knockout at O2 Arena.

The 6-feet-7, 255-pound Breazeale (20-2, 18 KOs) is more physically imposing than the 6-feet-2, 260-pound Ruiz, but Robles has more confidence in Ruiz’s other attributes as he prepares to face Joshua at Madison Square Garden. The 29-year-old Ruiz has been boxing for two decades and already has fought for a heavyweight title, whereas Breazeale began boxing at 22 years old, following a career as a college football quarterback at Division II Northern Colorado.

“I did sit down and watch that [Joshua-Breazeale] fight, but obviously we’re talking about two different fighters,” Robles, Ruiz’s trainer, told Sky Sports. “With Andy Ruiz and Dominic Breazeale, not the same fighter by any means. With all due respect to Dominic Breazeale, I think Andy’s the more seasoned of the two. He’s been fighting, as an amateur, since he was a small kid, a young kid, a young lad, and now has been fighting as a pro since, I believe, 2008. He’s a seasoned fighter, and he’s still young. So, he’s got a hell of a lot more experience than Dominic did.”

While Ruiz is a more experienced, better boxer than Breazeale, Robles also realizes that Ruiz has something working against him that Breazeale didn’t need to overcome when he encountered Joshua in the 2012 Olympic gold medalist’s first defense of the IBF heavyweight title.

“Oh, and by the way, Anthony Joshua’s a different fighter now,” Robles said. “He’s a much better fighter than when he fought Dominic Breazeale. He’s matured. I mean, he is who he is. In my point of view, he’s the best super heavyweight in the world, Anthony Joshua is. But I believe we have what it takes to pull off the upset on Saturday night.”

DAZN will stream the scheduled 12-round bout between Joshua (22-0, 21 KOs), of Watford, England, and Ruiz (32-1, 21 KOs), of Imperial, California as the main event of a seven-bout card.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.