Timothy Bradley, a former two division world champion, believes Anthony Joshua must go for the knockout when he faces Andy Ruiz in a rematch on December 7th in Saudi Arabia.
In the first bout, back on June 1, Joshua was dropped four times before the contest was waved off in the seventh round in New York City.
Ruiz, who came in as a late replacement and a huge underdog, walked away with the IBF, IBO, WBA, WBO world titles.
Joshua quickly exercised the contractual clause for an immediate rematch, and he vowed to correct his mistakes.
According to Bradley, Joshua should forget about boxing it out to a decision – and go for the KO win.
“He’s got to knock him out. It was a mental thing and it was a fact that he got caught right on the button. It was a fact that he didn’t train like he normally trains for big fights. He possibly took Ruiz lightly in looking at his physique like – ‘oh, he’s nothing,'” Bradley told Fighthype.com.
“Giving him his belts at the weigh-in. Like – ‘here, hold my belts’ – at the press conference. I’m like ‘yo, this dude is being a little bit too nice.’ He’s like trying to be the brother-in-law of Ruiz a little bit. I just thought that was odd. I thought all of those gestures were odd.”
On the other side, Ruiz has been slimming down, according to recent photos – and Bradley believes that’s a bad idea.
He’s concerned that Ruiz might lose some of his rapid power by cutting down on his weight.
“I don’t like the fact that Ruiz is changing his whole look and whole physique. I think that’s going to hurt him, but I think he might speed up with the hand speed. It might speed up, but I’m worried about the power,” Bradley said.
“I don’t know if he’s going to have the weight behind his punches anymore, and that’s what he’s going to need honestly. That’s what he’s going to need to stop Joshua. He’s going to need that punching power and his speed behind it.”