The Nigerian-British world heavyweight boxing champion, Anthony Olufemi Joshua, apparently, thought that his fight with the Mexican-American Andy Ruiz Jnr was likely to be a light workout if not a stroll in the ring. Why do I say so? Two reasons (a) Ruiz Jnr was merely a late replacement, just five weeks ago, for the originally scheduled fighter Jarrell Miller who failed drug tests some weeks ago. Eventhough all boxers are expected to be bout fit at all times, five weeks seemed too short a time for Ruiz Jnr to step into the ring with a man who had been preparing for the fight several months back.
Joshua is also a fitness expert which made it a tough decision for Ruiz Jnr but he was ready to take the bout. Fighting Joshua in America, the headquarters of boxing, was likely to bring Ruiz Jnr a big wallet. In his last fight with Joseph Parker in 2017 which he, Ruiz Jnr lost, he earned £770,000, the highest purse he has taken home from the pugilism trade. Now he knew that fighting Joshua, a world champion with four belts in America would earn him quite a bundle. And it did. In the fight with Joshua, Ruiz Jnr is smiling home with £5million in his pocket for 20 minutes in his roped square office.
Joshua is taking home £20million despite his loss. (b) The second reason why Joshua was looking beyond the Ruiz Jnr encounter and talking about a possible confrontation with the American Deontay Wilder who holds the WBC world heavyweight title must have been how Ruiz Jnr looks. He has rolling hills of fat at the ribs and Joshua may have thought that he would be fighting with a man who is as soft as puff puff. But at the Madison Square Garden encounter on June 2, Ruiz Jnr was not soft at all. He proved that despite his looks he is a tough cookie. Joshua floored Ruiz Jnr in the third round but the Mexican got up spritely and also returned the favour twice in that round. The match seemed even as they battered each other round after round until the 7th when Ruiz Jnr floored Joshua twice.
Joshua got up restoring the hope of his admirers that this champion who has never lost a fight before then was ready, after recovery, to take the fight to the Mexican to prove that champions never quit on their feet. But strangely he got up from the canvas and travelled the short distance sluggishly to his corner. His corner men were not sure what their man wanted to do, whether he was ready to return to battle or he was waiting for them to throw in the towel. Neither was his opponent.
Even the referee Mike Griffin seemed confused but after what looked like years when Joshua did not indicate his desire to return to battle the referee brought the fight to an ignominious close. Joshua’s conqueror never believed he had won but the referee’s decision told him so. You need to see ecstacy on parade. There was commotion in the ring. The biggest upset in heavyweight boxing had taken place. Ruiz Jnr never thought it was a dream because he knew it was not a dream.
He must have pinched himself hard to convince himself that it was real. Truly, Joshua had lost all his four belts to a man who was probably happy to have the opportunity for a big pay day and a slugfest with the man with four belts. In the heavyweight division, only one belt, the WBC, was outside of Joshua’s custody. That is the belt that Deontay Wilder is wrapping around his waist and hoping that one day a unification fight will take place and one man will make all the five belts his prized possession.
The expectation of many boxing fans was that if Joshua defeats Ruiz Jnr then there will be no excuse for Wilder and Joshua not to settle scores and bring all the belts into one man’s hand. Now, the cards have been shuffled. The unification bout is still in the realm of speculation because there is a rematch clause in the Joshua/Ruiz Jnr fight. Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn says that the rematch may take place in November or December in England. Hearn says a rematch is a must win because Joshua’s options will be “nothing after that.” Joshua seems to have no choice but to make an attempt in a rematch to get his titles back in order to regain relevance in the fistic trade.
The heavyweight division is now open. Deontay Wilder, who probably has the biggest punch in the division is waiting. So is Tyson Fury, the wily British heavyweight who had a draw with Wilder not too long ago. Those are the most visible superstars of the division but make no mistake about it, there are unheralded journeymen like Ruiz Jnr lurking in the corner and waiting to prove their mettle when the chance offers itself. That will bring more complication to the division.
Joshua calls his loss a “minor setback.” If an undefeated champion loses his four belts within 20 minutes after being floored four times that setback is far from being minor. Joshua says that “winning is everything. I am not going to sit here and say losing is fine. Not in my book but if you do happen to lose adjust and bounce back.” Joshua was gracious in his loss by conceding that he lost to a better fighter. He said, “I am a fighter by heart, boxer by trade.
He is a champion for now. I shall return.” His admirers, including this reporter, hope that he can find the magic and return in a big way in November or December to reclaim his titles. If he does he will regain the respect that we all bestowed on him. The manner of his quitting was unchampion-like. It would have been a better option for the referee to count him out while on the canvass than for him to get up and walk to his corner in a pathetic surrender.
That reminds boxing aficionados of the Roberto Duran/Sugar Ray Leonard encounter in which Duran said “no mass” (no more) and walked away in the middle of the fight. The boxing world derided him for his cowardly act.
He had to apologise to his fans and sought a rematch with Sugar Ray Leonard. This is evidence that boxers are considered by their fans as super human with extraordinary abilities. Myth gets destroyed now and again but boxing fans don’t seem willing to accept that boxers are, like the rest of us, human. But it is the boxers who have contributed to the inflation of that myth by their trash talk which is often essentially for marketing purposes.
The public tends to take them more seriously than they take themselves or expect to be taken. Chuka Momah, a boxing iconic writer, thinks that great fighters don’t quit the way Joshua did, standing on his feet. “The adage of boxing proclaims with great sobriety that ultimately truth will find the fighter. Indeed, after the media hype, hoopla and razzmatazz truth found Anthony Joshua. And it was extremely bitter. It did not set him free;” he said.
At the same time great fighters who lose their important fights may find the heart to make a significant comeback, and redeem themselves and their legacy. Joshua has come a long way. He was a rough fighter in the streets of London as a boy. He was a hemp smoker whose life was going the wrong way. Then boxing found him and he found boxing too. So far he has done well. One loss is not the end of the world for him. He and his team need to do some soul searching and discover what went wrong on the night he was floored four times.
Definitely the heavyweight division is one division that often produces surprises because fighters in that grade pack a punch that is close to a bomb. But Joshua was not destroyed by just one punch but by a barrage of punches which seemed to sap his energy before they got to the crucial round seven. In boxing, one stray punch that a boxer doesn’t see may have the devastating impact of a bullet and may bring the fight to an end. Ruiz Jnr seemed to penetrate Joshua’s defences easily, an indication that his team may have failed to do the needful or he himself was not effectively on duty that night. Another night will come whether in America or Britain and Joshua may be able to give a better account of himself.
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