Count Andy Ruiz as one among the legion of shocked observers who saw Oleksandr Usyk’s recent upset win over Anthony Joshua. 

Like many others, the Mexican-American heavyweight titleholder expected his former nemesis to come out on top against the Ukrainian southpaw in their WBA/WBO/IBF heavyweight title bout that took place on Sept. 25 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. Instead, Joshua wound up tasting defeat for the second time in his career, dropping a 12-round decision to the former unified cruiserweight champion. 

Ruiz felt Joshua had all the superior attributes going into the fight. 

“I thought Anthony was going to be the stronger man,” Ruiz told FightHype.com in a recent interview. “I thought he was going to box him around with his abilities, you know.” 

Ruiz (34-2, 22 KOs), of course, handed Joshua (24-2, 22 KOs) the first loss of his career, an upset of historic proportions, when, in 2019, he stopped the Brit inside seven rounds at Madison Square Garden in New York. Six months later, in the rematch, a more circumspect and cautious Joshua boxed his way to a relatively comfortable 12-round decision. 

Given how mobile Joshua appeared in their second fight, Ruiz was confused why he did not try to employ similar tactics against Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs). As the bigger man, Joshua fought mostly in the center of the ring but had difficulty reading Usyk's perpetual feints and avoiding his pinpoint left hands. 

“He just kind of stayed there,” Ruiz said. “I don’t know why he wasn’t moving around, like in the second fight with me. He ran around and made sure he didn’t get hit, and if he did, he would grab and move around. So he had his strategy. But for this fight, it didn’t go his way.

“It was probably the wrong strategy. He probably underestimated him. Kind of like how I did with Chris Arreola…I think Anthony Joshua is still there, still strong. I kind of felt he was scared and holding back a little bit. Maybe it was the lefty style of Usyk and how he moves.”