DUNES DUST-UP A HUGE GAMBLE FOR AJ
Brit will be left high ’n dry if he loses again
THE mood at Anthony Joshua’s rented New York flat after his shock defeat by Andy Ruiz Jnr was described by someone present as “like there had been a bereavement in the family”.
A solemn Team AJ had departed Madison Square Garden at about 2am. Joshua – freshly stripped of his WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight titles – then suffered another loss.
This time it was on the chess board where he sought solace against one of his entourage after Ruiz, the Snickers-eating Mexican-American, had floored him four times and stopped him in the seventh round.
Those closest to the 30-year-old boxer tiptoed around the subject unless he brought it up.
Promoter Eddie Hearn dropped by a day later, having left his man alone for 24 hours to “feel the pain that would inspire the comeback': Joshua ushered Hearn out on to the patio. "He wasn't himself," said the Matchroom chief. 'We went outside and we just talked. It was just me and him. "It was a little bit, 'What happened, what do you think, what about the rentatclar Joshua's manager Freddie Cunningham was also at the apartment and his main concern was that a friend was dealing with defeat. Business could wait. They had 14 days to trigger the rematch clause laid down in the fight contract. In the end, it took only three. Joshua, howeve4 took longer to get over the first loss of his 23-fight professional career. He had spent those three days in New York's trendy Soho district indoors, recovering from concussion and mulling over st, ,., gone so very, very wrong. "It was more frustration -frustrated he lost, frustrated with the setback;' said Cunningham. Joshua flew back to the UK on the 'Thursday but he was already thinking - amid the
frustration – how to improve and how he would turn this career low around.
Those around him said it was a month before he was back to himself.
In that time talks about the venue for the rematch were well underway.
By mid-July it had all been agreed that Joshua would return to the Principality Stadium in Cardiff to face Ruiz Jnr again after going back to New York was ruled out.
Ruiz Jnr wasn’t keen to fight in
the UK and made it clear he wanted a neutral venue.
But as Hearn prepared to go ahead with Cardiff anyway, he got a call asking him to contact a representative of the Saudi royal family.
“I had done this with other Middle East countries, easily half a dozen times,” said the promoter.
“I wasn’t rude to them, I was abrupt, saying we weren’t interested. But I told them the number we would need and we agreed terms very quickly.”
Within a week everything was agreed and signed – and the ‘Clash on the Dunes’ was on.
Then came the backlash, with Joshua criticised for fighting somewhere with such a bad human rights record.
But he was concentrating only on the fight and had one of his longest-ever stints in the gym in preparation.
Trainer Rob McCracken agreed to bring in Joby Clayton and Angel Fernandez to help with pad work, which allowed him to watch from the ring apron to spot where improvements could be made.
The trainer also got in the ring for the sparring sessions to help coach Joshua by mimicking situations he may face.
The message from inside Team AJ was that out of a loss came an amazing opportunity.
But it will be seen as a huge mistake if Joshua suffers another defeat at the hands of Ruiz Jnr.
Every move in his career to date has been calculated.
Tonight in the desert we will find out if it has paid off.