All pressure on AJ on night of redemption

ANTHONY Joshua will get redemption tonight, beat Andy Ruiz, win back his belts and become a two-weight world champion. But it still won’t make him the No.1 heavyweight in world boxing. In fact, it won’t even make him the second best.

Deontay Wilder is above him, as is our own Tyson Fury. They are the two men at the top of the table right now regardless of who has the belts.

Every fighter Wider has been in the ring with, he has either knocked them down or knocked them out.

That is a very scary stat. He has to be one of the most powerful heavyweights there has been.

When fighters box Wilder, they have to be switched on for 36 minutes, Wilder only needs two seconds to finish a fight – as he showed against Luis Ortiz last month.

As well as Fury did against Wilder, he was put down twice. And that will make an interesting rematch when they get back in the right together in February.

Joshua carries power. But in Wilder we are not talking about an 18st heavyweight, we are talking about a 15-anda-half stone heavyweight – what a lot of people call an old school heavyweight.

He is not far off being a modern day cruiserweight, so for him to be able to carry that power is frightening.

Everyone wants to watch Wilder fight – just as people wanted to see Mike Tyson – because you know you are going to see knockouts and drama. I was in Madison Square Garden on that June 1 night working with Callum Smith.

Even before he got into the ring, AJ’s head didn’t seem to be in the right place.

Ruiz went into the fight with no pressure and pulled off one of the biggest shocks in boxing.

Ruiz is a very likeable person – what you see on the TV is exactly how he is. I don’t think he is capable of trash talking. And because of his size, nobody took him seriously that night. He was even asking to hold AJ’s belts. Everyone bought in to this ‘non-threatening’ fighter.

But he took AJ round the corner and mugged him of his belts. And when he won, I think half the gym memberships in America were cancelled – it just shows it isn’t about body physique.

Now he comes into this fight as champion and has to be thinking to himself ‘I’ve beaten you once, I can do it again.’

Joshua knows he can hurt Ruiz, because he had him down in that third amazing round.

But the champion also knows he can get back up off the floor and carry on, while when he hurt

AJ, he stayed hurt and never fully recovered.

For me, there is a touch of Frank Bruno in Joshua. You used to be afraid of Frank getting hurt because he would stay hurt and didn’t know how to get out of trouble.

Ruiz knows he has to just land one good shot to get AJ again.

Everyone is talking about the new ‘leaner’ Joshua.

He has brought in two extra trainers to help him with his combination punches, his speed work.

A lot of people said AJ was becoming a bit too rigid with all the muscle mass he was carrying, and it sapped his energy levels.

He has worked on mobility and movement, quick hands and feet and combination punches in the build-up to this one, and that is what he needs to do.

Before that first fight, Joshua should have sought advice, he should have spoken to Vitali Klitschko, spoken to Lennox Lewis about how they dealt with short-armed small, pressure fighters like Ruiz.

He may have to play the boring game, getting a points win.

But the news from Ruiz camp is that he is faster, more explosive than last time, he is aiming to cut the ring off because he knows he has to win by knockout, he is not going to outpoint Joshua.

All the pressure is on AJ.