Anthony Joshua speaks on Lennox Lewis debacle and Andy Ruiz
Directly before and ever since, Anthony “AJ” Joshua fought Andy “Destroyer” Ruiz he has been submerged in speculation. Numerous groups of people believe Joshua’s focus was wanting going into the bout.
From the moment the UK phenomenon entered the ring he did look ‘off’. Yet, when he managed to drop Ruiz in the fourth round, folks began thinking that life was back on its natural course.
However, the Destroyer was able to find his feet and drop AJ in the same round. Nothing has been level for Joshua since that fateful fourth round and subsequent defeat.
Following a cantankerous re-negotiation period, both camps have officially green lit the Saudi Arabia rematch. With this being the case, an army of scrutinizing eyes are firmly back on AJ. Under this blazing light, Joshua has been a big ball of oddly conflicting statements.
A HISTORY OF FLIP-FLOPPING
Since the bout, AJ has claimed that his preoccupation with securing a fight with Deontay Wilder was a huge distraction. This is extremely quizzical because there were endless opportunities to face Wilder if that was his earnest desire.
Most notably, the UK big man infamously turned down a $5o million dollar guarantee to face the Bronze Bomber. So, if he speaks the truth on wanting to fight so badly, the big question is ‘why didn’t he?’
Boxing heavyweight legend “The Lion” Lennox Lewis would chime in to offer, from his perspective, honest advice and constructive criticism. However, Joshua would punish the deed by deeming Lewis to be a ‘clown’.
Interestingly, when more recently questioned about this, AJ somewhat back-tracked.
Upon further examination, Joshua stated he held great esteem for Lewis as a boxer. He even admitted that pictures of the Lion are littered throughout his training facilities. Apparently, he just didn’t care for the manner that Lewis spoke.
Alternatively, perhaps he sought a direct call rather than to receive communications via social media. Responding to reporters, Joshua even went so far as to agree with the statement that Lewis was picking on him.
Regardless of his actual feelings about Lewis, AJ displayed what appeared to be extraordinarily thin skin for a heavyweight champion.
“The man is a beast when it comes to boxing, you know? We got his pictures all up in my gym. When we are talking about boxing I respect that man.
“But I just feel like when it comes to me, it’s kind of different. ‘Anthony’s dodging, Anthony’s not this, he needs to do this’.
“I’m just saying, why you always coming attacking me instead of reaching out like Klitschko and giving a young man advice?”
TRYING SOMETHING NEW
For years, there have been calls for Joshua to shed some of his bulging muscles in an effort to focus more on his boxing skills. AJ remained firm in his resolution that he and his camp knew what they were doing.
Now, Joshua has publicly confessed that he has ceased focusing on the strength training in order to hone his boxing skills a bit more.
“If one thing is working, I am going to go in there and do it every time. But I believe that when you go to war you need more tools in your box than just one thing or two things that’s been working.
“So that time it didn’t work, I’ve now got to sharpen my other tools that I’ve been kind of leaving to rust.
Even though it’s a short amount of time, that’s why he said I trimmed down because nothing counts as more important in these three months than sharpening the tools that I left out of the box, rather than just coming in strong and fit.
“Andy’s is a champion! It’s not like as if I am fighting someone who is a stepping stone to a champion.
“We can’t kind of overlook Andy, [his] talents and his success in the ring because I am fighting the best out there right now. Right now, in my opinion Andy Ruiz is the best heavyweight out there.”
In another complete about-face, Joshua went from saying that Ruiz was not that great of a fighter to claiming the Destroyer was the best heavyweight on the scene!
As can be seen, when it comes to Joshua’s statements, it a good idea to write them down because there is an awfully good chance he’ll quickly reverse them.
For those who believe he has shown mental fragility, all these reversals come across as solid validation. For his supporters, they have to be rather unnerving.
Yet, none of us are AJ and more importantly, none of us can fight for him. It will be interesting to see how the “Clash on the Dunes” resolves itself and what intriguing sound bytes we can get with the remaining build-up.
3kingsboxing will definitely remain vigilant in reporting all the latest developments.
By: Bakari Simpson
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