Anthony Joshua lost his heavyweight title last night in New York, after being knocked out in Round 7 of his fight against Andy Ruiz Jr. It is by far the biggest shock in the world of boxing since Lennox Lewis lost to Hasim Rahman, and the consequences will be felt for a long time.
His first big match outside the United Kingdom was lethal for Joshua (22-1, 21 KOs) as he didn’t look even near the fighter who brought down Wladimir Klitschko and have one of the highest rates of knockout wins in the history of this sport.
Andy Ruiz Jr. took Anthony Joshua's heavyweight championship ?
(via @DAZN_USA) pic.twitter.com/ZXVvjaxTJp
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) June 2, 2019
Joshua was the one to strike first, and Ruiz went down on the canvas in the third round. In those moments, everybody at the Madison Square Garden thought that the British fighter would finish this event, but the Mexican had other plans. Ruiz (33-1, 22 KOs) unleashed a quick and vicious counter-attack which stunned the champ who finished on the ground. And to prove it that it wasn’t a lucky shot, Ruiz repeated that once more until the end of round 3.
After that, both fighters were a bit calmer, until the seventh round when they started to be more aggressive. That paid off to the challenger who made a series of punches which forced Joshua to go down once again.
The Brit didn’t want to back out but couldn’t last for much longer. Once he stood up, Ruiz used his bad condition to finish the match. Joshua was on the floor again, for the fourth time in this fight, and the judge in the ring, Michael Griffin decided to end the match.
According to the contract, Joshua has the right to a rematch, and he will have one in United Kingdom at the end of this year.
