By Keith Idec
NEW YORK – Unlike most heavily favored champions that lose, Anthony Joshua didn’t offer any excuses for Andy Ruiz Jr. upsetting him Saturday night.
The English icon respectfully credited Ruiz for beating him at a sold-out Madison Square Garden. The former IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion didn’t blame referee Michael Griffin for stopping their fight in the seventh round and didn’t attribute his stunning technical-knockout defeat to anything that occurred during training camp or fight week.
“Never nothing wrong,” Joshua said during a post-fight press conference early Sunday morning. “Never nothing wrong.”
When a reporter suggested that the 6-feet-6, 245-pound Joshua didn’t look like his usual self while fighting Ruiz, Joshua (22-1, 21 KOs) simply accepted all the blame for his loss.
“Nah, it’s my own fault,” Joshua said. “It’s my own fault. My own problem what I’m dealing with here.”
Joshua, 29, insisted that he didn’t take Ruiz lightly, either, even though Ruiz believes Joshua overlooking him played a factor in what occurred. The 2012 Olympic gold medalist stated that he never recovered from taking a hard shot on the top of his head late in the third round, when Ruiz dropped Joshua twice.
“I don’t underestimate anyone,” Joshua said. “He’s a decent puncher, decent fighter. It’s his chance, isn’t it? And I always say like, anyone that comes to box me boxes 15, 20 percent better than what we’ve seen. It’s funny because, as a fighter, as I said, I don’t overlook anyone. But it’s easy to overlook someone because of their shape or their record or whatnot. But these guys are coming to win, and he was the better man tonight. He done his job.”
The 6-feet-2, 268-pound Ruiz, of Imperial, California, floored Joshua twice more during the seventh round.
An exhausted Joshua replied, “Yes,” when Griffin asked him if he wanted to continue following that fourth and final knockdown. Griffin still stopped their scheduled 12-round fight at 1:27 of the seventh round.
Earlier Sunday morning, Ruiz (33-1, 22 KOs) noted that Joshua wasn’t fully focused on their bout because he continually discussed potential fights against WBC champion Deontay Wilder (41-0-1, 40 KOs), former IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO champ Tyson Fury (27-0-1, 19 KOs) and a rematch with Dillian Whyte (25-1, 18 KOs). Joshua disagreed with Ruiz’s assessment.
“What I learned from that situation is rather than try and block it out, naturally you’re gonna speak about Wilders, Furys,” Joshua said. “Naturally you’re gonna speak about Dillian. So, if people are gonna ask me about that, I’m all ears to it and I’ll give you the answer. It’s rude of me to say I’m not answering that question. So, I’ll give you the answer and that’s how it is. So rather than try and block out the fact that there’s other competition out there, I keep my eye on the prize and say, ‘Ruiz is who I’m fighting, but these are the guys I still wanna compete with.’ You know what I mean? It don’t stop. That’s why I say I ask Eddie [Hearn] what’s next?”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
