Andy Ruiz Jr Wins The Lottery on a Night of High Drama

Andy Ruiz Jr Wins The Lottery on a Night of High Drama

The fights last night at the hallowed Madison Square Garden didn’t promise much in all honesty. Little drama was anticipated, the undercard was heavily criticised, Andy Ruiz Jr was completely written off, but we got something that will live long in the memory.

Matchroom had a difficult night regardless of what happened with Anthony Joshua.

Josh Kelly hung on to his unbeaten record but only just, another Ray Robinson didn’t have the Sugar, but he had enough to seriously question the ambitions of the hyped Kelly. A lot of the shine has now gone, Kelly can learn, but his performance left major concerns.

We almost certainly got the best women’s fight of all time, Delfine Persoon left the ring in tears convinced she had been unjustly denied becoming the undisputed world lightweight champion.

Social media cried robbery, it wasn’t, but nearly everyone agreed with Persoon. I had it a draw, but you can’t help to have sympathy with the Belgium fighter. Her performance was often crude, but it was also smart. Taylor needs space and time, Persoon didn’t oblige. It gave us a fight the sport needed, a rematch is practically guaranteed, nobody will complain.

Ruiz did the unthinkable, a monumental upset that has ruined an awful lot of plans. The obligatory rematch will happen, but will all the belts be on the line, will the governing bodies flex their muscles, Dillian Whyte will hope they do.

Ruiz was always to be respected, very unlucky to lose to Joseph Parker, unfairly ridiculed because of his appearance. People said he was just happy to be there, he was, now we know why.

The rematch is a different fight on a different night, the worry I have for Ruiz, was this his moment, has he achieved what he set out to do, will the motivation be what it was.

Joshua lacked an edge to me, he looked flat, he just didn’t look on it, focused or fired up, but to his credit, he offered no excuses. He seemed to fold mentally as much as anything, towards the end.

The three times he has been seriously hurt now have been when he has hurt his opponent, and then forgets the other fighter, despite being hurt can still throw punches back.

He got careless and he just got tagged was part of the narrative, but it’s the third time it’s happened, three strikes and you are out I guess.

Freddie Roach has said in the past, Joshua over does the weights, and I tend to agree with Roach. Joshua looked stiff, slow, more so than previously, yes and that was before the fight turning 3rd round.

They questioned Ruiz’s foot speed prior, but it looked the other way around to me. Is two fights a year enough, what’s Joshua doing in between fight camps.

Virgil Hunter recently said this about Amir Khan, does this also apply to Joshua:

“He never has practice in between fights. He trains hard for 10 weeks but it’s not enough.”

The rematch most will consider that Joshua gets the win back, and I think he will but it’s by no means a given. Is the fire really still there, while he admirably gave Ruiz praise, he didn’t seem as bothered as you would suspect a beaten fighter should be. Shocked, stunned, surprised maybe, but I wonder.

Sport survives on its uncertainty, on nights like this, nobody will forget what they witnessed in the Garden. With all the recent heavyweight avoidance, it’s almost poetic justice what happened in New York, a reminder to the rest to take the opportunity while it is there.

We can all critique what went wrong, but sometimes we forget what went right. Ruiz got it right in more ways than one, a lot of other heavyweights must now realise that they got it badly wrong.