Anthony Joshua Urged to Take on Serious Opponents

Anthony Joshua has been urged to ‘fight somebody who wants to win’ following a domination of Otto Wallin this month.

Joshua quickly got to Wallin in his third and final fight of 2023 on the Day of Reckoning card. Across the first five rounds he inflicted sufficient damage – without taking any real shots himself – that the Swede’s corner pulled him out.

Former opponent Andy Ruiz Jr was not impressed. The one time unified champion fought Joshua twice, first winning with a huge upset knockout at Madison Square Garden in June 2019 before losing the belts in December the same year across 12 rounds.

Speaking to Fight Hub TV, Ruiz Jr was asked what he made of ‘AJ’s latest fight and claimed the opponent didn’t really come to win.

“Well, there’s nothing to make of it. He did what he had to do. The opponent didn’t really have a lot of skills. I feel he didn’t have a gameplay to fight Anthony Joshua and when you fight Anthony Joshua you gotta have a game plan.

“I wish it would have been somebody with more skills, somebody who wants to win the fight, wants to throw punches, like me, I wish it would have been me fighting him. Hopefully we do the trilogy but if not he’ll probably go another route.”

He was asked to confirm that he would like to fight Joshua for a third time.

“Of course, if not there’s always Joseph Parker.”

Of all the men Parker could fight next, Ruiz seems high on the list in what would be a rematch of their 2016 world title fight which saw Parker come out victorious.