Andy Ruiz Jr. says he plans on showing IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua no respect this Saturday night when the two of them battle it out on DAZN and Sky Box Office at Madison Square Garden in New York. Although the 31-year-old Ruiz Jr. is an underdog in the fight, he feels quite confident that he’s going to be able to take advantage of the flaws that he’s seen in the game of the heavily muscled 6’6″ Joshua on Saturday night.
Ruiz Jr. believes that part of the reason why Joshua has looked so good since turning pro is the opposition he’s been facing. Joshua has been fighting a lot of fighters that have been beatable. It was only recently that Joshua started fighting better fighters, and even then, it was badly flawed heavyweights like 40-year-old Alexander Povetkin, Joseph Parker, Carlos Takam and 40-year-old Wladimir Klitschko.
Ruiz Jr. sees weaknesses in Joshua’s game
“There are weaknesses…But the guys he has fought? I’ve sparred with them and they wouldn’t want to fight with me,” Ruiz Jr. said to skysports.com. “I know I will pull off an upset.”
The weakness in Joshua’s game is easy to see when one looks back at his toughest fights. Joshua gassed out badly against an inactive Wladimir, who was coming off of a 2-year layoff, and he also gassed out against Carlos Takam and Dillian Whyte. In those fights, it was shown that Joshua exhausts himself when he’s forced to fight hard for an entire round. Joshua then stays tired for at least three rounds afterwards. In other words, Joshua’s recuperative powers are dreadful for a fighter, which makes you wonder whether his cardiovascular system is designed for an aerobic sport like boxing. Joshua has been able to disguise his conditioning issues due to the fact that he’s been matched against a lot of old guys like 40-year-old Povetkin, 40-year-old Klitschko and 38-year-old Takam. But against a heavyweight that puts it on him, and makes him fight hard for three minutes of each round, there’s a very good chance that he’ll gas out once again.
Is Joshua still carrying too much muscle?
Joshua has lost some muscle weight since his fight with Takam in 2017, but he’s still in the mid-240s, and looks more like a bodybuilder than a fighter. Bodybuilder types generally don’t do well in fights that are fought at a fast pace. Those type of fighters are good for quick knockouts in the early rounds or fights that are fought at a slow enough pace for them to get plenty of rest breaks.
Ruiz Jr. believes he’ll be the first to stop Joshua
It would be a major upset if Ruiz Jr. beats Joshua this Saturday, as he’s a HUGE underdog in this fight. Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn believes he’s the #1 heavyweight on earth bar none. If Ruiz Jr. is able to knock Joshua off the hill, it would be a tremendous upset. You have to remember that Ruiz Jr. was chosen as a replacement opponent for Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller, who tested positive for banned substances while training for the fight. Hearn could have selected an arguably more talented fighter than Ruiz Jr. in Luis Ortiz, but he didn’t. This is Hearn’s baby. He’s the one that wanted Ruiz Jr., and if this blows up in the face of Joshua, it’s going to look bad on Eddie for having picked this guy.
“I believe in my heart that we can win, and we are going to win. It will be one of the biggest upsets in the world. I can be the first one to stop him, Ruiz Jr. said.