I particularly liked when Ruiz threw his fists in the air just before the ref called the fight - he knew Joshua was done.
He was. It was over to anyone that knows what they’re seeing in a high level fight, novices too. A good and correct stoppage by the ref.
All the ref did was keep Joshua from having his head caved in. He’d been glass-eyed for a while, and those two quick knockdowns - spitting his mouthpiece after the second - would have been quickly followed by a third. Staggered, charitable to call his defense “half-hearted,” and was taking hard shot after hard shot.
And he wasn’t following the refs instructions after the knockdown. He tried to take a break -and the ref told him as much - chilling on the ropes rather than follow instruction, and obviously did not want to be there.
I’m a huge Ruiz fan now.
And, once again, and while I hate it for AJ, I’m so happy that Hearn got the wind sucked out of his sails. He had potential 8 figure matchups with Wilder and Fury in the bag, but delayed too long to maximize the potential profit, and ended up looking like a fool as a result. Probably the worst thing about the sport right now. Pac-Mayweather sucked when it finally happened.