Former Champion: Andy Ruiz Jr. Defeat Ruined Anthony Joshua’s Confidence

Former two-weight champion Timothy Bradley believes Anthony Joshua has lost his confidence.

Joshua is coming off a unanimous decision defeat to Oleksandr Usyk last month after getting outboxed over 12 rounds to lose his heavyweight titles.

Although a rematch is next on the agenda, not many observers are giving Joshua much hope especially given Usyk’s boxing credentials.

And for Bradley, mentality is a factor as well as he believes Joshua has not been the same since his defeat to Andy Ruiz Jr. in the summer of 2019.

“It’s a different mentality. Joshua, his mentality is way different than Tyson Fury. Joshua’s okay, it just seems like he’s comfortable with losing a fight,” Bradley said to Fighthype.com (via BoxingScene). “He’s gracious and whatever you want to call it, but it’s too easy for me. Boss, it’s hard to train when you’ve got the whole world at your feet. It’s hard to train and stay focused and stay dedicated and having that hunger and desire.

“Because success, that weakens [the mind], and I think in the Ruiz fight – I think that ruined him. I think that ruined his confidence, I think he’s also scared to get hit. He’s gun shy, don’t wanna throw because he’s afraid of getting hit, so that’s why you didn’t see him throw.”

While Joshua was able to bounce back from the Ruiz defeat by outpointing him before earning a knockout win over Kubrat Pulev, many felt “AJ” was much different to his pre-2019 self.

However, he can still defeat Usyk in a rematch — provided he uses his size and doesn’t try and outbox the Ukrainian.

“Usyk’s a small heavyweight but he does have some snap on his shots but he’s the bigger guy, he needs to act like he’s the bigger guy,” Bradley added. “It’s almost like he’s a big guy but he has a small guy mentality. He needs to switch that around and I think the only way is he has to have a talk with himself. That’s the only way to fix that.

“He has to talk with himself and say ‘hey, how do you want to be remembered?’ Where’s the guy that fought Klitschko? Where’s that guy? You bring that guy out, you beat a guy like Usyk. It seemed like he starting to get the game plan but then he just kinda ran out of juice and he was just okay, he just laid down like – ‘alright well I’m okay with just losing, it’s fine, I’ve lost before. I got the rematch clause, the whole nine.’”

Do you agree with Bradley?