Your jab, footwalk, style gave you an edge, ex-World champ tells Joshua
Lennox Lewis believes Anthony Joshua fought the right fight in choosing to box his way to a 12 round decision over Andy Ruiz Jr. last Saturday at the Diriyah Arena, in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia.
Boxing great Lewis was impressed the discipline that Joshua (23-1, 21 KOs) showed in using his jab, and footwork to outbox the 283 lb Ruiz (33-2, 22 KOs) to avenge his loss from last June.
“Every fight isn’t going to be a KO. I thought AJ fought a good tactical fight and didn’t fall into trap of trying to mix it up in exchanges,” said Lewis on his Twitter [@LennoxLewis]. “This was a good addition to his experience. He also wisely unpacked his jab for this one.
“I understand that ppl want blood… but, as a fighter, you have to be disciplined enough to wait for the opportunities to open up. Sometimes they don’t come. When that happens you play it safe and stick to game plan.😳 So now it’s been rewritten to I called HIM a clown after he lost? Maybe you should go back to my tweets and have a look at exactly what I said back then,” said Lewis.
Joshua recently said, “Lennox is a clown” due to him being critical about his performance against Ruiz in their first fight. AJ didn’t take criticism too well from Joshua, and he fired back at him.
Lewis had criticized Joshua in the past about the negotiations that took place between hims promoter Eddie Hearn and Wilder’s management. It’s a fight that the boxing world wanted to see, and yet it didn’t get made. Many fans believe it was Joshua’s side that made the fight with Wilder undo-able.
“He won the first one, he won the second one, and I’m ready for the third one,” said Ruiz to TMZ. “Of course, that’s what we’re working on. No, because we just got done with this fight,” said Ruiz when asked if they’re negotiating the trilogy match yet. I don’t know if he has a mandatory. I’m going to take some time off, and relax. It could have happened to anybody.
“I was having too much fun, and celebrating too much. I was having a few coronas, and was eating everything. That’s why I gained so much weight. Even out of shape, I did pretty good. But I wish I’d taken it a little more seriously.
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“For sure, in the third fight, I’m going to give it all I got. I want those belts back. I think so. He was running so much. I think with me being big, I was too slow to catch him. I’m going to train harder,” said Ruiz.
It’s good that Lewis chose to praise Joshua in public, because it lets him know that he’s not someone that always on his back criticizing him. Although Lewis thought Joshua needed to change his trainer Rob McCraken for a different guy after AJ’s loss to Ruiz last summer, he didn’t say anything that wasn’t already being said by other boxing fans.