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Anthony Joshua: Andy Ruiz Jr Was Just Making Excuses by Claiming He Wasn’t Fit to Fight Me
Anthony Joshua's commanding performance against Andy Ruiz Jr may have been one month ago, but reaction to the fight hasn't stopped since. Was Ruiz in any condition to fight? Did he enjoy the trappings that came with his TKO win in June 2019 a little too much? After the fight, Ruiz himself said that he "ate everything" and wishes he had taken his world title defence "more seriously".
But according to Joshua, the comments we've heard from Ruiz are just excuses that "ease the blow" of losing his heavyweight champion of the world title. "It's an excuse; you don't make excuses. I've just got be honest, it's an excuse," says Joshua.
"Everyone's gonna train for a world championship fight, but I think it's a way to ease the blow of it, but he'll be back and he'll learn from it. That's the main thing."
Rather than being a consequence of partying too much – "it's impossible to party for three months straight," says Joshua – the Watford-born heavyweight champion believes Ruiz's weight gain was a deliberate tactic to try to beat him for a second time.
"You've got to listen to what a man says, right? It's not only studying their fight tactics, you also get to learn how their mind works," says Joshua. "He just said that basically what they want is for me to get tired after six rounds and because he's quite heavy and strong he can land a big left and lay me on my back. That was the plan.
"He said that he came into camp and he was a bit lighter and he didn't feel good, so he wanted to put on more weight so he could continue landing power shots."
Joshua spoke to MH after a live recording of JD Sports ‘In the Duffle Bag’ podcast, recorded at JD’s Oxford Street flagship store.
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