MANNY ROBLES, THE trainer of WBA, IBF and WBO heavyweight world champion Andy Ruiz Jr, says he doesn’t believe any of the mooted theories behind Anthony Joshua’s defeat to his fighter, and maintains Joshua is the only one not making excuses after suffering his first loss.
Ruiz shocked the boxing world and exploded toward global prominence when he dropped Joshua four times and stopped him in the seventh round of their Madison Square Garden encounter — this just five weeks after messaging Eddie Hearn on Instagram requesting that he be the one to replace Joshua’s originally scheduled opponent, Jarrell Miller, who failed three drug tests.
Ruiz, Mexico’s first-ever heavyweight world champion, has since basked in the glory of his seismic upset, travelling to Mexico to meet the country’s president among other excursions.
Joshua, meanwhile, has triggered the rematch clause in his contract, but despite his best efforts to champion Ruiz as the better fighter on the night, rumours as to what went wrong for the Briton have persisted.
Joshua himself has dismissed claims that he suffered a panic attack in the lead-up to the scrap, and Robles isn’t buying the theories that have circulated in the fight’s aftermath.
The Mexican coach, who once trained Ireland’s Michael Conlan and Jason Quigley in California, also claimed that Ruiz would love for the rematch to take place in either Mexico or Las Vegas, but that ‘The Destroyer’ has no issue travelling to the UK for a Joshua sequel provided his pockets are lined sufficiently.
“There will always be reasons why [a fighter loses], but that’s why Anthony Joshua is such a gentleman – he’s not looking for excuses,” Robles told IFL TV.
He accepts the better man won that night and that’s exactly what happened. What else is there to hear? What else is there to know? There’s talks about him getting beat up, getting hurt in sparring, about him getting stage fright or something like that, a panic attack – I don’t believe that.
“He’s been doing this for such a long time, I don’t believe it one bit,” he continued.
“Andy came in prepared, we did our job to come in in the best shape possible; we came in ready, believing in ourselves and really that’s all that matters. That’s all that matters to us.
“From my understanding, on the Andy Ruiz team, they’re going to even try to suggest to make the fight here in Vegas. What better place than to bring it to the boxing capital of the world, right?
We just got back from Mexico and now they’re talking about possibly bringing it to Mexico, New York or even London. If you ask Andy, he would love to fight in Mexico, but it’s up to the promoters and managers and so forth to come to an agreement as to where. If the money’s right, he doesn’t have an issue fighting anywhere.
Ruiz earned almost $7m for stepping in to face champion Joshua, who is expected to bank somewhere north of $20m for his role in the bout, which was a pay-per-view in the UK.
The Mexican-Californian’s mother, father and brother, however, also earned a tidy payday in the region of $30,000 after backing their man to bring the titles home from New York.
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