Anthony Joshua vs. Andy Ruiz Jr. (1st meeting)

2019-06-03T00:14:43Z

Coonan: /* Bout Summary */

[[File:JoshuaRuizPoster.jpg|340px|right]]
<fight>2327776</fight>

==Bout Summary==
* Ruiz down in third round. Joshua down twice in third round and twice in seventh round.

* Ruiz Used his lightning-fast hands to land jabs and power shots to overpower Joshua. Incredibly, Joshua was unable to see the punches coming in and thus could not counter. Joshua's best punches did not faze Ruiz in the slightest. Ruiz' punches were so powerful that once Joshua was downed, his legs never recovered.

* Ruiz remained calm throughout. Joshua's downfall was his game plan, which appeared to be the lack of one. With superior height and reach advantages, all Joshua had to do was outwork Ruiz from the outside and stop him. Instead, Joshua stood in front of Ruiz, and allowed Ruiz to come forward in the mold of 49-0 [[Rocky Marciano]] and simply walk him down and overpower him. Joshua was not throwing his usual array of blows, an approach probably due to poor advice in his corner. Joshua, upon dropping Ruiz in the third, simply acted like the fight was almost over, and moved in to finish Ruiz without exercising due caution, and this proved his downfall. Ruiz got up and let his hands go, and once hit with Ruiz' power, Joshua went down and never fully recovered. Ruiz, short and somewhat roly-poly in appearance, a late substitute opponent for the illegal-substance-disqualified [[Jarrell Miller]], did not appear visually to be a threat. As Joshua learned from his lackadaisical game plan, looks can be completely deceiving.

* Ringside DAZN commentator Sugar [[Ray Leonard]]'s comments echoed pure respect for Ruiz' victory, and the concept that in the ring, anything can happen at any time: “This is a surprise to boxing fans and the world. You (Andy) are the epitome of don’t judge a book by his cover. I am impressed. Ruiz fought like a big man, and fought like Joshua should have. Andy, you proved all of us wrong, and that’s why I love boxing.”

* Promoter [[Eddie Hearn]] and Joshua both noted that a mandatory rematch clause would be exercised in the United Kingdom in either November or December of 2019. "One hundred percent (we will fight a rematch in the UK next)," noted Joshua.

* The end of the bout echoed the lack of serious attitude Joshua projected. Joshua, his mouthpiece spit out, got up and turned his back to neutral Canadian referee [[Michael Griffin]], then held onto the ropes in a corner. When asked if he wanted to continue, Joshua said yes, but never lifted his hands from the ropes he was holding with any seriousness of purpose. Referee Griffin, who has twenty years of refereeing experience with worldwide respect, opted to stop the bout. Joshua had to be able to project and convey to the referee an attitude that he was seriously able to continue. The fighter in such a circumstance must show a serious demeanor to convince the referee to allow the bout to continue.

* The situation referee [[Michael Griffin]] wound up in could be historically compared to referees [[Frank Sikora]] and [[Harold Krause]] allowing [[Floyd Patterson]] to continue against [[Sonny Liston]] in either of their two world heavyweight championship bouts, referee [[Joe Cortez]] allowing [[Andrew Golota]] to continue in his world heavyweight championship bout against [[Lennox Lewis]], or referee [[Frank Cappuccino]] allowing [[Michael Spinks]] to continue against [[Mike Tyson]]. Beat the count or not, from a referee's perspective, beyond a certain point, continuing a world heavyweight championship bout under lopsided circumstances already evolved is unsafe and unwise. As evidence, everyone watching the Joshua-Ruiz bout had the expectation Joshua would win easily based on Joshua's size and Ruiz' visual appearance-but-when Grffin stopped the bout in Ruiz' favor-nobody watching the bout at Madison Square Garden or at home disagreed with Griffin's decision.

==Notes==
*WBA, WBO, IBF and the IBO world heavyweight titles were at stake.
*Ruiz was a late replacement for [[Jarrell Miller]], who failed multiple drug tests.

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Anthony Joshua vs. Andy Ruiz Jr. (1st meeting)