JAW-DROPPER
As Anthony Joshua triggers the rematch clause with Andy Ruiz Jnr, Joe Joyce remembers a very different beast to the one who stormed New York
THE world was shocked when Andy Ruiz Jnr toppled Anthony Joshua to win the WBO, WBA and IBF world heavyweight titles in New York. But no one was more surprised than Joe Joyce. The British heavyweight was a long-time sparring partner for Joshua when Joyce was on the GB squad in his amateur days. He’d seen Ruiz in the gym too and didn’t expect the Mexican-american to seize the championship belts.
“Not in a million years. I saw Andy Ruiz in Big Bear and he was sparring with Charles Martin. But he was struggling to do two to four rounds and he didn’t want to spar me. I was just thinking it would be a walkover job for Joshua. Little did I know,” Joyce told Boxing News.
“I did a load more rounds with Martin,” the 33-year-old continued. “I think [Ruiz] was struggling with fitness, struggled with altitude and he wasn’t willing to spar me.”
But he saw a different fighter at Madison Square Garden on June 1. “I didn’t think Ruiz was that powerful a puncher,” said Joyce, who takes on Bryant Jennings on July 13 at the O2. “He must have really pulled out all the stops training for that fight.
“To see him be so calm under fire and counter, he’s really fast and came in low with quick shots. It startled Joshua. I think it shows how Joshua hasn’t really got a good chin. Once he gets hit he seems to
be in trouble. Imagine him against [WBC champion, Deontay] Wilder… When he fought [Wladimir] Klitschko [in 2017] he was troubled but Klitschko didn’t have it to finish him off but Ruiz definitely did. I guess that was the difference.”
But Daniel Dubois, another British heavyweight who knows Joshua well, did not share Joyce’s surprise at the outcome.
“In boxing as a whole you should never take anything for granted,” Dubois, 21, told BN. “I guess you’re so long at the top you can get dry. I think that may have had a part to play before the fight, even watching him in the ring and everything. But that’s his path. What’s meant to be will be. It’s up to him if he wants to come back from that. If he wants to bounce back, it’s all on him now. It’s his journey, it’s his path. I’m not really one to watch what other fighters are doing.
“I’m a fighter. So watching that as a fight, anything’s possible. Ruiz, the capabilities he’s got, his fast hands so you should never overlook anybody. Watching it seemed normal to me, as a fighter, I’m sure to the public, they may be thinking we look at the heavyweight champion as someone invincible and everything else. It is what it is.”
Joshua, meanwhile, released a video to address the shocking nature of his collapse and voice his intention to put matters right in the rematch which, according to promoter Eddie Hearn, will occur in November or December.
There were conspiracy theories aplenty in the aftermath plus undue criticism of Joshua’s trainer, Robert Mccracken. The former champion was quick to dispel any notion that anything went wrong in the build-up.
“I took my first [professional] loss,” Joshua explained. “How to explain that feeling? It has happened to me before [as an amateur] but I feel like those times I lost years back have made me a stronger person.
“It hasn’t really changed me, my work ethic, my mindset, what I stand for, the people I’m still loyal to – my trainer Rob Mccracken, my amateur coach at Finchley ABC. I’m still going to work with these guys, they’ll teach me everything I need to know.
“They’ve done a great job for me not only inside the boxing ring but mainly as a human. They’ve really developed me as a person which is really important. These guys have been with me for years.”
“There was no contaminated food. I know there’s a lot of accusations or worries about what was wrong with me,” Joshua added.
“I’m the one who went in there to perform and my performance didn’t go to plan. I’m the one who has to adjust, analyse and do my best to correct it and get the job done in the rematch.
“Boxing is a part of my life and I’m a champion at heart. Congratulations to Andy Ruiz, he has six months or so to be champion because the belts go in the air and he has to defend them against myself.”
It’s not easy being the world heavyweight champion. Ruiz may soon find that out. Already he’s the new face of Snickers and is being pulled in different directions as all sorts of people demand his attention. It remains to be seen whether Ruiz will cope.
“It might go to his head,” Joyce said. “I don’t know from personal experience yet but you know how [Tyson] Fury won all those belts off Klitschko but then he went off the rails because he’d completed his objective, what he was in his whole boxing career to get to, then he got there. So we’ll see what happens with Ruiz, if he’s going to stay training and stay focused on defending those belts.”
‘RUIZ WAS STRUGGLING WITH CHARLES MARTIN IN SPARRING’