Signs that Anthony Joshua was broken mentally before the fight started

[Jax teller]

Whole fight was like one long panic attack for AJ, was a beaten man before the bell, the only time he looked at peace with himself was after the defeat, strangely.

He bottled it leaving the changing rooms and swapped groin guards to buy himself time to get his head right, once in the ring he was anxiously chewing on his mouth guard, he wouldn’t leave the ropes where he is normally pacing around pre fight. Then the 3 anthems, and no-one was home from the initial bell. He then gassed terribly.

Guy was broken mentally way before the initial knock down in my opinion.

He's looked like this since and including the Parker fight relluctance to throw/engage. Maybe his lost the dog in him remains to be seen in the rematch.

[deathofaclown]

I thought it was body shots you can't shake off, although I know temple shots aren't liked by boxers.
But ruiz did get a few body shots in also. So who knows what made Josh most uncomfortable? I'm sure I n a Q&A Josh could answer all your questions. But I'm sure Josh don't want to give too much away.

Joshua doesn’t shake off any shot well, that’s always been the problem but Ruiz made him pay for it.

I always said he stays hit once he’s hit. It took him ages just to recover v Whyte and Wlad. I never thought Ruiz would get him though.

Any fighter that fancies their chances of hurting him must feel they can finish him once they do.

[Jax teller]

disagree with ppl saying he was his self until the third
he was fighting scared from the first round dave allen nailed it when he said he fought like someone who has been getting dropped in sparring
his reaction after was like he was happy to lose, whole thing was wierd
keep in mind ajs a guy who previously has had a problem with biting his knuckles, and bringing in a sports psychologists in all of a sudden? theres problems there for sure

AJ's always had a sports psychologist and so do a lot of elite athletes and sports teams. They use them to give them an edge by really refining the correct winning mentality it's not generally a therapy thing for someone being messed up.

[alexguiness]

Joshua learnt that boxing is a different game when your opponent starts throwing rocks back...

[deathofaclown]

Joshua learnt that boxing is a different game when your opponent starts throwing rocks back...

Indeed. Plus it’s not like he’s never been in that situation before. It’s happened a couple of times but they didn’t finish the job.

I’d understand all these rumours and conspiracies if someone like GGG was getting bounced off the canvas 4 times, then it’d be very out of the ordinary.

With AJ it was nothing new at all, he’s been almost gone before. just nobody really expected it’d happen against Ruiz.