Las Vegas, Sunday
Andy Ruiz Jr sprung one of the biggest upsets in heavyweight championship history when he spoiled Anthony Joshua’s US debut with a seventh-round TKO on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden.
The unheralded 29-year-old from southern California, a replacement opponent dialled in on five weeks’ notice who went off as a 11-1 underdog, came off the floor in the third round to drop Joshua twice before the end of the frame, then sent the champion clattering to the canvas for a third and fourth time in the seventh round before referee Mike Griffin put a stop to the proceedings at the 1:27 mark.
This was no fluke. No lucky one-punch knockout that can be explained away by a silver-tongued promoter. Joshua was outboxed, out-toughed and beaten up on a night that turned the division on its ear.
“I just feel so good, man,” said an elated Ruiz, who absorbed Joshua’s WBA, WBO and IBF belts in a shock that ranks alongside Buster Douglas v Mike Tyson and James Braddock versus Max Baer among the biggest in the division’s centuries-spanning annals. “This is what I have been dreaming about. – AFP
