Heading into last Saturday's bout with Oleksandr Usyk, the prevailing thought was that the best way for Anthony Joshua to win would be to fight on the inside and use his power and weight on Usyk to retain his titles.
Instead, Joshua implemented a completely different strategy by fighting on the outside and attempting to outbox one of the best pure boxers in the entire sport. The idea failed, and Usyk won the IBF, WBA (super), and WBO heavyweight titles.
One fighter who watched and scratched his head at what Joshua tried to do was former three-belt heavyweight titlist Andy Ruiz Jr.
“He just kind of stayed there,” Ruiz told Fighthype. “I don’t know why he wasn’t moving around, like in the second fight with me. He ran around and made sure he didn’t get hit, and if he did, he would grab and move around. So he had his strategy. But for this fight, it didn’t go his way.
“It was probably the wrong strategy. He probably underestimated him. Kind of like how I did with Chris Arreola…I think Anthony Joshua is still there, still strong. I kind of felt he was scared and holding back a little bit. Maybe it was the lefty style of Usyk and how he moves.”
In June 2019, Ruiz stepped in for Jarrell Miller to drop Joshua multiple times and stop him to win the three belts Joshua lost to Usyk. Six months later, Joshua employed a boxing-first gameplan to beat Ruiz to become a two-time unified heavyweight champion.
“I thought Anthony was going to be the stronger man,” Ruiz said. “I thought he was going to box him around with his abilities, you know.”
Ruiz (34-2, 22 KOs) last fought in May when he got dropped but bounced back to win a decision over Chris Arreola.