If handled nicely, maybe Ruiz can keep the belts together for a while yet. Al will be doing his best to keep the titles in house.
I wonder if Al Haymon can find a way of serving up Ruiz on a platter to his stablemate Wilder? Haymon has a habit of keeping titles under the same roof. Who'd have thought that Wilder could go from just the one belt to having the whole lot. Amazing.
Let's be optimistic and say "the latest laugh". You never know, Wilder might also suffer a shock defeat at some point. We know that Ortiz wobbled him. Last night was the first time Ruiz had been floored and he got up and knocked Joshua down twice in the same round. Who is to say he can't do the same to Wilder
Ortiz also belongs to the same stable as Wilder and Ruiz Ron. The belts belong to Ruiz and Wilder, but they also belong to Al Haymon's Premier Boxing Champions.
You could say that about Joshua. But this Mexican is a hard nut and that was the first time he had been floored. I've seen fighters take Wilder's punches but the difference with Wilder is as soon as he senses they are hurt he goes in for the kill. However, this was the mistake Joshua made against him and got caught. May have been a lucky punch but going in for the kill and forgetting about defence is something Wilder does and it could be risky
Yes it was the first time he was floored. But take a long look at who had fought previously. He had never been in with a banger.
Agreed he has fought a lot of nobodies but he completely dominated the 10 rounds against Johnson, who had taken Kubrat Pulev, Dereck Chisora, Tyson Fury and Vitali Klitschko to 12 rounds and he went the distance with Parker. The fact that he didn't ko Parker, and has failed to ko 10 other opponents (supposedly nobodies), probably says more about Joshua's chin which has always seemed a bit suspect. I've heard it said that Joshua didn't prepare mentally for this fight and will slaughter Ruiz in a return. I'm not so sure. After being knocked down twice in round 3 he knew what he was in with and had 3 full rounds to take it seriously. And then he got knocked down twice, with what didn't seem particularly clean hits, and basically quit standing up. Not impressed at all with Joshua after that. I wouldn't have a penny on him to beat Ortiz, if that should happen
It's all about money Ron. Fighters sign to the biggest promoter they can in order to get the bigger paydays. Eddie Hearn has an 8 year deal with DAZN that's worth a billion US dollar, so he has the cash to entice the better fighters. Canelo signed an 11 fight deal with them for US$365 million, GGG 6 fights for 8 figures per bout and because Joshua is tied to Matchroom, DAZN get his fights as well,and he has to be paid the big bucks too. DAZN - Matchroom have already signed Usyk, Jacobs, Callum Smith, Daniel Roman, Andrade, Whyte, Hooker, Ryan Burnett, Quigg, Tevin Farmer and the list goes on and on. Because The World Boxing Super Series has also signed with DAZN, they inherit the likes of Donaire, Inoue, Tete, Payano, Prograis, Josh Taylor, Rilikh, Troyanovsky, Baranchyk, Yigit, Briedis, Dorticos, Glowacki etc. Al Haymon's PBC also has a list of class fighters on it's roster. Wilder, Ortiz, Pacquiao, Spence, Andy Ruiz, Berto, Breazeale, Broner, Bundu, Bute, the Charlo brothers, Collazo, Gervonta Davis, DeGale, Derevyanchenko, Felix Diaz, Dirrell, Easter, Frampton, the three Garcias, Mikey, Roberto & Danny, and they just a few of the fighters who've chased the money at Premier Boxing Champions. PBC sold their boxing broadcast rights to Fox for US$60 million per year for 4 years. They also have an ongoing deal with Showtime for the same amount per year. So it it's pretty easy to see why DAZN - Matchroom and Premier Boxing Champions have no trouble recruiting fighters. They have lots of cast to throw around. One of the sad things abut it thoughis that quite often, world titles are often held hostage by the the money men. With so many good fighters on their books, they can keep the silverware to themselves. This is where Eddie Hearn fell over big time with Joshua, he invited the enemy into his tent, and paid a huge price. All the goodies are now in Al Haymon's back yard.
Talk about shock. Adam Smith waiving off a stunned Paulie Malinagie and a gaping Steve Bunce in the second row. I had to watch this half a dozen times just to appreciate the full impact of what was on offer. Only 40 seconds of film and so much to see. All five of them in the front row are a wonderful sight. I wish there had been more of it. Brilliant stuff.
I think he will. I think they'll write it off as a blip say they overlooked Ruiz, come out with some story about training not going to plan or him feeling unwell and then push hard for the rematch to get him back on track.
And so it begins. There's talk that Joshua didn't feel well before the fight and wanted to pull out but Hearn wouldn't let him and made him fight. This led to Joshua's dad allegedly going for Hearn leading to a few handbags been thrown. This according to trainer Peter Fury.
All sorts of chatter about AJ in the couple of hours pre-fight. I’ve heard that the delayed ring walk was because he was sleeping and they were badgering him to get ready. He wanted even more time but they had used up all of their excuses by the time he eventually got out. Apparently after all the meet and greets and celebs finished all that nonsense in the dressing room, he slept. There was something 100% not right with him, I’m absolutely sure of that. The tried to disguise a neck massage during the ring announcements. Watch the clip again- it’s very much hidden in plain sight. There’s a chance he was suffering from a concussion- if that is true and he was sent in to box, then that would genuinely be disgusting and heads would need to roll. He fought like he was in a daydream. I’ve got no reason to blow smoke up AJs arse- I’ve said all along somewhere down the line he was likely to get knocked out cos that’s the division, and he’s shown more than enough vulnerabilities for someone to have a punchers chance. This isn’t about being in denial, I genuinely don’t think that lad was ever himself in the final two days before the fight at least, and possibly the whole week. Totally bizarre. I don’t want to take anything away from the brilliantly applied tactics of Andy Ruiz either - he did exactly what he should have done. I’m telling you though, one day the truth will come out about this fight.
I agree something wasn't right. He wasn't right even before the knock down. Even stiffer and slower than usual. Very little to no movement and nothing in his punches. He was using his jab quite well but not like he usually does and there weren't many combos been thrown. Like you said though take nothing away from Ruiz. He knew he needed to get on the inside and knew he needed to swing and he did just that.
