Anthony Joshua vs Andy Ruiz Jr: Breaking Down the Main Event & Undercard

Anthony Joshua vs Andy Ruiz Jr

Breaking Down the Main Event & Undercard

By Rachel Aylett

Other than a very routine PBC show on Saturday night, there is a dearth of top quality action this weekend. Of course, this leaves the floor open nicely for Anthony Joshua in his return to the ring after nine months of inactivity.

He heads the Matchroom-Salita-GCP card at Madison Square Garden, New York, on Saturday, defending his heavyweight title belts against Andy Ruiz Jr.

The show is featured on streaming service DAZN in the U.S., but is pay per view fare on Sky Sports Box Office in the U.K. A bumper card was promised by Eddie Hearn, with U.K. fighters down one side of the card against quality opposition. So is this how it turned out?

I take a look down the bill now, grading each match-up on quality and importance. The grades run from A – E.

Anthony Joshua v Andy Ruiz Jr.

I have seen many people say that Ruiz is a better opponent for AJ than originally scheduled Jarrell Miller. But how can this be?

Despite being heavily derided, even before the drug fail fiasco, at least Miller had massive size (bulk) and strength on his side, along with an 84% kayo record. He also still carries an undefeated record so, although never looking that great, we were uncertain of his limits.

With Ruiz, we already know his limitations, as he was defeated by Joseph Parker in his only previous step up to the top level. To add to that, Ruiz is short for a heavyweight at 6’2 and will have a height and reach disadvantage against AJ. Ruiz also only brings a KO record of 64% to the table.

On the flip side of this, considering that the top three heavyweights seem determined to avoid each other at all costs, Ruiz is an acceptable opponent. There have been many worse challengers for alphabet belts down the years.

He is certainly better than Breazeale and Schwartz, the opponents of Wilder and Fury, respectively. He should certainly last longer against AJ than Breazeale did against Wilder.

BoxRec ranks Ruiz at no.14 which is just about right. The current bookmaker odds are in the region of 1/25 for a Joshua win. It is hard to see how these can be wrong. Ruiz is an aggressive box/fighter but his style will simply see him walking on to Joshua’s big shots. Fight rating: B-

Callum Smith v Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam

After Callum Smith won the World Boxing Super Series last September, we hoped that it would springboard him into the limelight after he had spent many years in the shadows.

However, he has not been seen in action since and undertakes the first defence of his WBA super-middleweight title on Saturday, some nine months later. Neither is the opponent a top level one, N’Dam being a career middleweight, only now stepping up to super-middle after 19 years as a pro. After having been awarded several interim versions of alphabet belts, N’Dam finally won the WBA belt in May 2017, beating Ryoto Murata in Japan. This was universally slated as a terrible decision and, sure enough, Murata stopped N’Dam in the rematch five months later.

In winning the WBSS, Smith became the consensus pick as no.1 in the world at his weight. By way of contrast, although finally winning that WBA belt at middleweight, N’Dam can best be described as a fringe contender-type at the weight. In pictures this week matching the fighters, Smith is seen to have a big advantage in height and, almost certainly, reach.

It’s not as though we can say that N’Dam has a puncher’s chance, with only a 53% kayo ratio. The odds at the moment are around 1/50 for Smith to retain his belt. Fight rating: C+

Katie Taylor v Delfine Persoon

Although huge swathes of fans still refuse to watch or follow women’s boxing, Katie Taylor has eaten into that demographic as much as anyone could. She has done everything asked of her to date and done it in style. On Saturday she goes for all the marbles as she faces her chief rival in the lightweight division, Delfine Persoon from Belgium.

Taylor already holds three of the major belts, with only Persoon’s WBC one still outside her grasp. To date, only Jessica McCaskill has given Taylor any sort of challenge, but one would hope that Persoon will do the same.

Persoon has held the WBC lightweight title for over five years, and has made nine successful defences. She is one of the most established champions in the women’s sport. The WBC champion will have a big height and reach advantage over Taylor, but don’t necessarily expect her to box on the outside, as she is not averse to getting inside and fighting in the trenches.

Regardless of this, Taylor should have the answer to anything she brings to the table. The odds are in favour of Taylor at 1/16 to become undisputed world lightweight champion. Fight rating: B+

Chris Algieri v Tommy Coyle

This fight has captured the imagination of the fans more than any other on the bill, perhaps due to there being so many intangibles involved. Algieri, five years ago beat Ruslan Provodnikov for the WBO belt, only to lose it to Manny Pacquiao in his first defence, now two fights into his comeback. How much does he have left?

Coyle, never in a bad fight and by his own admission on the home stretch of his career. Algieri is rightly favoured by the bookies at 2/7. This cannot help but be a cracker – there is so much on the line for both men. Fight rating: A

Josh Kelly v Ray Robinson

Matchroom’s hot welterweight prospect Kelly has his first real step up in class against American Ray Robinson. The latter has just come off the best result of his career, holding another prospect, Egidijus Kavaliauskas, to a draw only six weeks ago.

This writer was amongst many who thought Robinson actually deserved the decision. Also he is a tall and rangy southpaw – a potential banana-skin for Kelly then? Not really, as although Robinson did well against Kavaliauskas, before that he was stopped in seven by Yordenis Ugas.

For whatever reason, Kavaliauskas was reluctant to let his hands go against Robinson – Kelly won’t be. The Mackem is 1/6 favourite for victory. Fight rating: B

Also on the undercard, Joshua Buatsi has a warm-up against Marco Periban, for what will hopefully be a big fight in the next couple of months, and Olympian Souleymane Cissokho, 8-0 (6 kayos), who boxed for France at Rio 2018, fights in an 8-rounder.

Overall then, perhaps a mixed bag for a PPV event, with the main fights underwhelming, but a few gems to be found in the support matches. Is it PPV-worthy? The bottom line is that a commodity is only worth what people will pay for it.

Considering that thousands of people, not necessarily boxing fans, would pay to watch Joshua fight a cardboard cutout, the answer is yes, of course.