Deontay Wilder has twisted the knife after Anthony Joshua‘s crushing loss to Andy Ruiz Jnr by claiming AJ is not ‘mentally strong enough to take the rematch’.
Joshua suffered one of the greatest upsets in heavyweight history when he was stopped in seven rounds by the unfancied Ruiz at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night.
The defeat curtailed – at least for now – his plans to face either Tyson Fury or WBC champion Wilder in a money-spinning megafight.
Instead, Joshua is set to trigger his rematch clause and face Ruiz later this year as he tries to win back the WBA, IBF and WBO belts he lost in New York.
But Wilder told Boxing Talk: ‘I think getting exposed like that on a major stage in the United States when your people are talking so much c*** and you get blown out like that… I don’t think he takes the rematch.
‘I don’t think he’s mentally strong enough to take the rematch. This was way too deep for him and another reason I strongly feel he’s not going to take the rematch is that this man quit on the world stage.
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‘He didn’t want to be in that fight anymore. The champion quit.’