If Styles Make Fights why are people using this loss as a measurind stick?

[Sheldon312]

Mosley beat Mayorgga but loss to Vernon who lost to Mayorgga. Leonard ko Hearns but lost to Duran who was stopped by hearns.Just because Ruiz beat AJ doesn't mean Wilder does.

[_Rexy_]

Damage control

[Sheldon312]

Damage control

How????????

[_Rexy_]

How????????

Because there’s more threads right now about how “this is a loss for Wilder” or “this doesn’t prove anything for Wilder” instead of talking about what Andy did right, or Joshua stinking the place up.

[Scopedog]

I do think "styles make fights" is a thing and can sometimes be a valid excuse for a loss, but I think with this one it was more about Ruiz exploiting Joshua's most severe weaknesses, weaknesses that have always been there but have never really stood out like this until now.

I think since the Klitschko fight Joshua's been slightly tentative and gun-shy, and that really cost him here because it meant that Ruiz could keep coming forward without a great deal of fear of walking onto something, move his head, slip within range and let his faster hands go. That in turn forced Joshua mostly onto the back foot, which then meant he was burning gas faster, which highlights his other major weakness, that being his poor stamina. He seems to struggle with this issue in any fight that goes past the halfway point but it hurt him more here because Ruiz was backing him up and forcing a high tempo. It also showed that Joshua's defence isn't great because he just wasn't able to block or evade Ruiz's shots despite the fact that it was a shorter guy who was by and large lunging in with his shots.

At any rate, Joshua has a lot to fix if he wants to put this right, but I'm not sure whether or not he's already peaked and is capable of making the adjustments he needs to. In particular I don't think he's going to be able to fix his stamina now. Maybe he needs to pick up a few tricks from the Wlad school of slowing down fights and nullifying your opponent's offense.