It's incredible how quickly fans turn on a fighter. Joshua himself admitted that he was looking toward the Wilder fight despite himself.
Not being focused is a terrible mistake in a fight against anybody. It pervasively affects your training, your conditioning and your mindset.
Joshua obviously didn't take Ruiz seriously enough because of the obvious rookie mistakes he was making against a fighter who has a higher than average ring IQ and punished him for it.
It reminds me a little of the LL v Hasim Rahman fights, where in the first fight, Lewis was far too lackadaisical and not taking Rahman seriously enough - then whammo - he was out before he knew what was happening.
The rematch will require IMO, A.J to work on his speed, combination punching including to the body, and tightening up his guard, especially keeping that chin tucked in.
On Ruiz's side, how many times have we seen an underdog upset the big dog and get caught up in all the hype, drama and attention that they have never dealt with before which leads to fractured training camps, too much celebrating and so on?
I get the feeling Ruiz will stay as focused as he can, but if A.J comes back into the second stanza focused, angry, in top condition and executes the right game plan, it may still be close but A.J ought to prevail.
What a ****** comment
Joshua was rocked by Whye, old Klitschko and Povetkin
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