The boxing world was treated to a unique spectacle last weekend where the heavyweight championship was contested for the first time in Saudi Arabia.
In a move that continues to see more and more international events taking place for the sport outside of the US and UK, it could prove to be a new regular occurrence given the reported success of the event.
The fight itself saw Britain’s Anthony Joshua reclaim his three heavyweight titles in a diciplined display where he stuck to a strict game plan to comprehanisively outbox former champion Ruiz Jr to get the decision.
Following the fight Ruiz admitted he had not trained very hard for the fight after he came in quite a bit over weight for the bout.
This hasn’t gone down well with some fans — including former heavyweight champion of the world Lennox Lewis:
Indeed, many fight fans seem to be in agreement with Lewis’ premise:
Moreover, the frustrating thing about the whole situation is Ruiz knows just how good he is and that he well and truly belongs at this level.
He must be kicking himself this week looking back at the fight preparation.
That being said, he knows what he has to do moving forward and I wouldn’t be surprised if you see him make a big push in 2020 to re-dedicate himself to his training and diet more seriously than ever before in his career.
People forget that he had lost a huge amount of weight in the early part of his training camp for the Joshua rematch but somehow went way overboard in the second half of camp.
There’s no denying his hand speed, punching power, huge heart and chin will serve him in good stead in big fights in the future.
He has all the tools, the rest is up to him.
Expect him to bounce back much stronger in the new year.
