HELL’S BELLIES!

Joshua wanted to make a major mark in the USA... he did by suffering one of boxing’s biggest upsets when he was stopped by the FLABULOUS new heavyweight champ Andy Ruiz Jnr

ANTHONY JOSHUA hoped to make a big impact on his US debut.

He did, but not in the way he wanted. Instead of proving, in Deontay Wilder’s homeland, that he is the world’s top heavyweight, Joshua was destroyed inside seven rounds by Andy Ruiz Jnr.

And in defeat, it exposed worrying frailties.

This outcome was not some freak, one-punch KO shock which can be dismissed. Joshua was systematically dismantled by American-born Mexican Ruiz in one of the biggest of world heavyweight title upsets.

Ruiz floored him four times before the fight was stopped, with Joshua reduced almost to a wreck in his own corner.

He came to Madison Square Garden targeting Wilder to fulfil his dream of becoming the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world.

But he leaves with his carefully-created world of blue-chip endorsements in pieces after being taken apart by the flabby Ruiz, who had just six weeks’ notice.

Promoter Eddie Hearn’s golden goose has been shot down in a cloud of feathers and there was stunned disbelief among the

19,000 crowd.

This was a horrible, horrible defeat and

Joshua’s tank instantly emptied when Ruiz recovered from being floored to put him down for the first time in the third round.

Like a football being punctured, Joshua’s energy escaped, to leave him with legs as jelly-like as Ruiz’s belly. The jibes about being a robot and a bodybuilder rather than a boxer have currency now. Joshua did not know how to react when he got hit and lacks the boxing IQ of a Ruiz or Tyson Fury because he knew nothing before he started boxing at 18. Even more alarming is the suspicion that he is chinny.

Look back at his career and he was hurt by Dillian Whyte,

floored by Wladimir Klitschko and troubled by Alexander Povetkin before this horror show.

Joshua, 29, insists his first defeat since losing the final of the 2011 world amateur championships is just a bump on the road and that he will be back.

“We’re still young in the sport, there’s still a long way to go,” he said.

“It’s a minor setback if you like. I feel like this is part of the journey I’m on. I have to re-evaluate the situation. We didn’t come this far to fold under pressure.

“It’s a test of character and I want to stay strong. I’m not going to blame anything. I’ve lost. I’ve got to take that on the chin.”

Joshua can use inspiration from Lennox Lewis, who suffered shock world-title defeats to Oliver McCall in 1994 and Hasim Rahman in 2001, only to bounce back and become champion again.

Lewis sent Joshua a message on Twitter: “Pick yourself up and learn from this. Don’t worry, you will bounce back!”

Fury was also supportive, tweeting: “These things happen, rest up, recover, regroup and come again.”

But not Wilder (right), who in his usual classless way could not resist sticking the boot in.

“He wasn’t a true champion,” he said on Twitter. “His whole career consisted of lies, contradictions and gifts.”

Joshua and his trainer Rob McCracken have a massive rebuilding job to do ahead of an expected rematch. The warning signs were there from the first bell when Joshua failed to gain control and the aggressive Ruiz targeted his body.

Then when Joshua decked Ruiz with a left hook in the third, he made the cardinal error of rushing in, leaving himself open and the challenger floored him with a right hook.

He got away with that mistake against Klitschko, but not this time.

He was out on his feet and Ruiz put him down a second before the end of the round with two left hooks. Joshua was fatally wounded and Ruiz pummelled him to put him down twice more in the seventh before referee Mike Griffin stopped it one minute and 27 seconds into the round. Not the statement Joshua had wanted to make.