June 1st: A Night of Upsets

June 1st: A Night of Upsets

By Rubi R Hashmi

Saturday June 1st was an eventful night for fans of combat sports, specifically boxing and mixed martials arts. The UFC emanated out of Stockholm, which was ideal as timings didn’t clash with Anthony Joshua’s big debut at Madison Square Garden.

The main event in both cards provided massive shocks. Anthony Smith beat hometown hero Alexander Gustafsson, who then retired on the spot, whilst Andy Ruiz sensationally knocked out Anthony Joshua to become the first ‘Mexican’ world heavyweight champion in history.

Let’s start with UFC Stockholm, before we got to Gus vs Smith, Jimi Manuwa suffered a brutal 47 second KO to light heavyweight prospect Aleksandar Rakic. This was Manuwa’s fourth consecutive loss and he has since announced his retirement too.

That led to the main event, heavy favourite Gustafsson taking on “Lionheart” Smith. Gus was edging a close fight, before succumbing to Smiths’ excellent ground game and submitting to a rear naked choke in the fourth round. The Erickson Globe arena fell silent.

Gus gave a short post-fight interview in the octagon where he took his gloves off and left them on the canvas. A past sign of retirement, he verified this in a longer interview and then on social media.

“The Mauler” has been within touching distance of the gold on more than one occasion, only to fall short to the greats. In any other era, he would surely be champion, but it wasn’t to be.

He will be remembered for his war with Jon Jones at UFC 165, which is amongst the greatest fights in UFC history. But more so for being a pioneer for Swedish mixed martial arts.

Now to the biggest upset since Mike Tyson vs Buster Douglas. It all started after AJ’s initial opponent Jarrell Miller failed several drug tests, causing him to withdraw from the bout.

The search then began for a legitimate opponent, with most top heavyweights previously engaged or refusing the fight. Andy Ruiz Jr accepted the monumental challenge of dethroning Anthony Joshua on five weeks’ notice.

Virtually everyone discarded Ruiz’s chance of emerging victorious, stating the obvious differences in size, strength, reach and physique. Ruiz played the underdog role to perfection, all the while quietly telling the world he was the man to beat Joshua.

Whilst AJ is an Olympic gold medallist, Ruiz has impressive amateur pedigree too. Amassing an amateur record of 105-5, and professional record of 32-1 prior to Saturday, it was foolish to judge the man of appearance.

Ruiz showed heart, deceptively quick hands and accuracy in the pocket. Dropping Joshua four times after being dropped himself, the referee waved off the fight in the seventh. Not much protest from Joshua or his corner.

After the fight, the attention was on his rivals Wilder and Fury, who took different approaches in responding to him. But for now, Ruiz is the man of the moment. With a rematch certainly on the cards, another victory and he could be the one to face Wilder for all the belts and undisputed glory.