London, Wednesday

Frank Warren believes Anthony Joshua will always be vulnerable to being knocked out regardless of whether or not he avenges the sole blemish on his record when he faces Andy Ruiz Jr this weekend.

Joshua was put down four times by Ruiz en route to a shock seventh-round stoppage defeat in New York back in June, the only other man to drop him to the canvas before that was Wladimir Klitschko in 2017.

Warren, who promotes Joshua’s heavyweight rival Tyson Fury, is of the impression that the loss to Ruiz highlighted underlying weaknesses in the Brit’s armour.

“I think his last few fights have showed that his chin is a bit suspect, no doubt about that. Certainly the last fight proved it and that is something that’s always going to be there,” Warren told the Dailymail. 

Although Warren says the extra time to prepare for the unruly and unusual come-forward style of Ruiz will be beneficial, he is not predicting a different outcome when the pair renew their rivalry for the heavyweight world titles this weekend in Saudi Arabia.

He adds: “The first one, there were all the stories going around that Joshua was knocked out before the fight and I tend to believe them.

I think that was the case, Ruiz took it on five weeks’ notice and he took Joshua’s best shot and Joshua couldn’t cope with him.”

Fast hands

“Obviously, he has had longer now, I’m not saying it will make a lot of difference to him physically but mentally he will be in a better place but I look at it and think what is AJ going to do?

Is he going to box? I don’t think he’s going to outbox him because Ruiz has got fast hands and I think he will catch him again and knock him out again.” 

And Warren imagines that another defeat by Ruiz will come at the price of Joshua losing the core of his fan group and money-spinning pay days headlining stadium events on PPV shows. -Dailymail