Footage of Andy Ruiz absorbing a huge right hand from Anthony Joshua during their first fight is going viral again after recent events in Saudi Arabia.
Joshua scored a devastating knockout win over former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou in round two of their much-anticipated crossover bout in Riyadh.
After flooring Ngannou with his trademark right inside the first round, the Brit continued to apply pressure before landing another mammoth power punch, knocking his opponent unconscious.
It was a right hand that has been used time and time again over the years but back in 2019, Andy Ruiz ate the punch before recording one of the biggest upsets in heavyweight championship history.
As you can see from the footage below [21 seconds in], Joshua was looking to strike again, just moments after dropping Ruiz. However, the American managed to somehow stay on his feet.
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This really was a crazy 40 seconds or so. Ruiz dropped but got up, puffed out his cheeks, took a huge right hand from Joshua and then had him on his backside seconds later. Whatever criticism you throw at today’s crop, they have brought us some real exciting moments. #boxing
Ruiz went on to secure the IBF, WBA (super), and WBO heavyweight belts after handing Joshua the first loss of his professional career at a sold-out Madison Square Garden.
Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn admitted that his fighter would “hate” him if he revealed the reasons why he underperformed in the defeat to Ruiz, who would suffer defeat to AJ in their rematch.
“It’s nothing to do with sparring or panic attacks but there are reasons that he wasn’t firing on all cylinders. He will never tell you, and he would hate for me to tell you,” Hearn told Sky Sports.
“He doesn’t want excuses like we’ve seen with Deontay Wilder. When I look back now, knowing what was wrong, I can look at his face and say: ‘You knew you weren’t 100 per cent, didn’t you?’.”
He added: “But all week he was fine, smiling. At no point did anyone say, ‘He doesn’t seem himself’. Looking back now there is something in his eyes that says, ‘I’m not best prepared’.”
Ruiz, however, is not the hardest puncher Joshua has been hit by in his boxing career.
“Who’s hit me the hardest? Yeah, Klitschko,” he said on the Pound For Pound Podcast.
“I was gonna say Ruiz, but when he hit me that was like a concussion on the back of my head.
“When I went in with Klitschko, yeah, I just knew this could go two ways. I could either win or I’m gonna be laid out on my back. You know when you get carried out on a stretcher?”
