5 years ago today. The day the hype died.

Ruiz is lost talent. He beat Joshua , but that is pretty much it. Lost the rematch, took the money and spent the next 4 years doing nothing or fighting Arreola and Ortiz for nothing. In august he fights Miller in another pointless fight.

Crazy it’s been 5 years since Ruiz upset AJ. NSB was a crazy place back then, you had nutters like Juggs and **** Em claiming AJ was the GOAT Heavyweight. :lol1: Your flip flopping azz probably was rooting for the other guy until he lost

Time goes fast! Was it the same night as Liverpool v Spurs Champions League final? For some reason I have it in my head I was watching that match at someone's house and then went home to watch this card. What a crazy night that was. All sensible boxing fans knew AJ would lose at some point, but I don't think many thought it would be Andy Ruiz at short notice that kept bouncing him off the canvas. Persoon also battered Taylor that night and got robbed. I know exactly where I was... At the beach, with my wife and kids, in a nice rental, with the fight playing on a laptop on the kitchen table. That was back when DAZN was cheap. Epic upset.

That fight shocked me. I knew Andy was skilled and had very fast hands, but I didn't think he hit that hard. I also thought AJ was an absolute beast coming off his win over Wladimir. He's still a beast, but more vulnerable than I initially thought.

Looking at the context, Ruiz was a bad choice of opponent for AJ at that point in his career, even allowing for the fact that they needed to find a replacement for Big Baby at short notice. AJ's US debut was supposed to launch Eddie Hearn and and DAZN's "American takeover". They needed an opponent for AJ to look good against to impress the US casuals. Andy Ruiz was not that guy, and I said so here before the fight happened. Ruiz is very tough and durable, with good stamina, fast hands and respectable power. But the US casuals didn't know about that. All they saw in Andy was a short, fat Mexican, who AJ would surely dispatch quickly and easily, if the hype was real. To make matters worse, AJ/Hearn were in the middle of a propaganda war with Deontay Wilder/PBC, and Wilder had just posted a devastating, highlight reel, 1st round KO of Breazeale, which added to the pressure on AJ to look just as devastating against Andy. Like I said, Andy Ruiz is not the guy you want to go out looking for a quick KO against.

And since than Ruiz has only had 3 more fights: Joshua rematch, Arreola, Ortiz. He has fought on fringe level since he lost his titles.

I was very critical of AJ back then but respect him more now. He's shown good character with avenging his Ruiz loss, was competitive against Usyk both times and actually gave him a hard time in their rematch. Has been active recently with good performances. He might not have those signature wins like Fury has but has been a more consistent and reliable heavyweight during the course of his career. Yeah, he got a lot of hype early on but like others have already stated, no one was calling him an ATG and the best ever like they do with Fury and from my perspective he's better than I thought he was whereas Fury seems worse than once thought. The Ngannou and Usyk fights showed that when Fury's opponents can negate his physical advantages, he's nowhere near as effective. Add to that, the fact that Fury has always come up with some sort of excuse anytime an AJ fight has been close to being made. There isn't much between AJ and Fury, they're the 2nd/3rd best of this generation but we may never find out who's no. 2 and who's no.3.

Crazy it’s been 5 years since Ruiz upset AJ. NSB was a crazy place back then, you had nutters like Juggs and **** Em claiming AJ was the GOAT Heavyweight. :lol1: AJ no GOAT. He is one of the best 50 heavyweights of all time and a good alphabet champion. He career is not over yet.

And then Ruiz literally gift wrapped the title back to AJ a few months later. If only Ruiz trained for the rematch, he could have beaten AJ again, AJs career would look a whole lot different in that case

AJ is decent and we are lucky to have him. I think he's the hardest hitter in the division right now. But him being an all-time great of Heavyweights? Uncertain of it. Time will tell when he hangs it up. He has provided us very good fights and is willing to take on anyone.

I wouldn't call it a fluke. Ruiz is a good fighter, if he wasn't so lazy and actually got active he would have been in the mix around the levels of Parker, Hrgovic, Zhang, AJ etc etc. These fighters are all capable of beating each other on the night. Ruiz has ability, but we saw his mentality, coming into his first defence around 300lbs and clearly been living the life. Definitely not a fluke, just a night where a good fighter with poor discipline actually turned up ready. Agreed. I saw Ruiz fight prior to the match with Joshua. I was impressed with his skills and speed, especially given his physical appearance. Although it surprised me he KOed AJ, it didn’t shock me. Andy obviously has what it takes to hang around the top — if he can stay disciplined.

I wouldn't call it a fluke. Ruiz is a good fighter, if he wasn't so lazy and actually got active he would have been in the mix around the levels of Parker, Hrgovic, Zhang, AJ etc etc. These fighters are all capable of beating each other on the night. Ruiz has ability, but we saw his mentality, coming into his first defence around 300lbs and clearly been living the life. Definitely not a fluke, just a night where a good fighter with poor discipline actually turned up ready. Most def a fluke. I don't GAF about excuses for failing to keep a title/momentum. Excuses should be things women boxers use. Andy beating AJ is up there with Jake beating SRR

Was this a bigger fluke than the rest ? Obviously, Andy beating AJ was an epic fluke. 0 successful defenses :lol1: I wouldn't call it a fluke. Ruiz is a good fighter, if he wasn't so lazy and actually got active he would have been in the mix around the levels of Parker, Hrgovic, Zhang, AJ etc etc. These fighters are all capable of beating each other on the night. Ruiz has ability, but we saw his mentality, coming into his first defence around 300lbs and clearly been living the life. Definitely not a fluke, just a night where a good fighter with poor discipline actually turned up ready.

Was this a bigger fluke than the rest ? Obviously, Andy beating AJ was an epic fluke. 0 successful defenses :lol1:

Time goes fast! Was it the same night as Liverpool v Spurs Champions League final? For some reason I have it in my head I was watching that match at someone's house and then went home to watch this card. What a crazy night that was. All sensible boxing fans knew AJ would lose at some point, but I don't think many thought it would be Andy Ruiz at short notice that kept bouncing him off the canvas. Persoon also battered Taylor that night and got robbed.

All this because Miller popped for PEDs and Dillian Whyte didn't want the smoke.