London’s calling for next defence
Andy’s goose was cooked when he piled on
against another Brit but, if not, I’ll take on my mandatory and crack on that way.”
Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, said Tottenham had been keen to get the Ruiz rematch but could not work with the dates needed.
The last fight to take place at Spurs was when Michael Watson suffered life-changing injuries in a savage fight against Chris Eubank at White Hart Lane in September 1991.
“Wembley does not look great, date-wise,” said Hearn. “Tottenham Hotspur is a nice new stadium for a UK fight and we have to look at it. The phone has gone crazy with people saying, ‘Bring him here, bring him there’.
“People have seen what we’ve just done in Saudi Arabia and there are a lot of options, but AJ wants to box back in the UK.
“Spurs are keen again and it would be a nice London stadium to do it in.”
There is also a WBO mandatory challenger to deal with in Oleksandr Usyk but he is set to face Derek Chisora in February so Pulev comes first.
Joshua is determined to lureWBC champion Deontay Wilder into an undisputed clash but says he will not chase the American like before and even refused to mention his name.
The Briton said of his belts: “They spent some time with me and they spent some time in Andy’s house, and they were crying to come back to daddy.”
It is believed the fight broke the pay-per-view record of 1.21million on Sky Sports Box Office, held by Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor in 2017.
ANTHONY JOSHUA awoke yesterday with a major headache – but not from the punches landed by Andy Ruiz. The former champion found the target with so few big shots they could not possibly have caused much damage.
The headache comes from the stress of being world heavyweight champion again. Some simply cannot handle being top of the tree, like Tyson Fury who had a welldocumented meltdown after he beatWladimir Klitschko. Or for that matter the man facing Joshua on Saturday night in Saudi Arabia, who admitted he had too much on his plate – literally – to be ready for their rematch six
ANDY RUIZ admitted he put on too much weight, did not train hard enough and partied too much as he surrendered his titles.
The MexicanAmerican was clinically outboxed by Anthony Joshua as he mimicked months after he Joshua and the world.
After reclaiming his WBA, IBF and WBO belts, Joshua looked comfortable back in the role, conducting interviews in a restaurant fittingly called The Globe on top of the Al Faisaliah hotel in Riyadh yesterday.
In his first spell as champion, Joshua carried the weight of being British boxing’s biggest star on his shoulders. He says it will be different this time.
“The belts can be your best friend or your best enemy,” said Joshua, who will have earned more than £50million for his win by the time all the pay-per-view revenue is totted
Buster Douglas in failing to build on a shock victory by losing in his very next fight.
Douglas beat Mike Tyson in 1990 before he ballooned up in weight and was beaten by shocked up. He added: “It’s hard being champion, trust me. It’s not all fun. I remember when Mike Tyson said, ‘You couldn’t walk in my shoes’.
“It’s not what it seems like, this life of dedication, it’s a headache. This time it will be more low-key. It’s not the show any more.
“We’ve promoted the hell out of boxing in a short space of time. Now I just want to focus on fighting and being a better fighter.”
Joshua is rightly back as one of the best heavyweights on the planet and just the fourth heavyweight alongside Floyd Patterson, Muhammad Ali and Lennox Lewis to win his titles back at the first attempt. There
Evander Holyfield. Ruiz piled on over a stone between his win over Joshua on June 1 to this weekend as he clearly enjoyed being champion and his £15million too much.
He weighed in here at 20st 3lbs having been 19st 2lbs at the first. “The heart that I have, I’m not scared of any of my opponents and if I’d have let my hands go just like I did on June 1, I would have won this fight,” said Ruiz.
“I should have trained harder, listened to my