Before anything it must be said disclaimer; The information within this post is not factual and may be incorrect. However this is the opinion of 1STMAN and should not be used as evidence or to tarnish the reputation of Anthony Joshua or anyone associated with Matchroom boxing.

It’s one week before the fight and we’re clicking around on YouTube when we came across Andy Ruiz sparring highlights.

Lightening hand speed, hard hitting hooks, combinations and good head movement had us convinced this was the guy to take Joshua out.

There’s no secret within the boxing world that Joshua is a little too muscular/test tubed for boxing. Like something from Rocky 4, this man has been built to hit hard and nothing else. Anyone with any level of boxing IQ knows that his robotic style, lack of head movement, predictable combinations and static feet spell problem. However having fought no one up to this point it’s easy to see why the topic has been overlooked. Even coach Robert McCracken has expressed his doubts about Joshua being ready to fight the likes of Fury and Wilder.

But wait, didn’t he beat Klitschko? Yes he did, but Klitschko was 40 years old, had already been beaten by Fury and even put Joshua down. A prime Klitschko walks through Joshua within 4 rounds, again anyone with boxing knowledge knows this. It’s the casual fans who have jumped on the Joshua hype train who have given him the platform he has today. These are the same people who watch Hobbs and Shaw genuinely thinking The Rock is a tough guy even though he has about as much flexibility and movement as a piece of bark.

It was obvious that Ruiz would out manoeuvre Joshua, Ruiz is a more natural boxer the body just fools people. So there’s that. But this is only the tip of the iceberg that is Joshua’s fraudulent career.

Steroids

Every one has looked at Joshua at somepoint and wondered if he’s used steroids and with fellow Matchroom boxer Dillian Whyte testing positive for his last fight, steroids aren’t too far from home. We didn’t do the body test. The “body test” is wrong to do, not all men are built equal and it’s entirely possible that Joshua has unbelievable genetics or works very hard with a clean diet.

Here’s the angle we think is more valid. In all sports they have a testing pool. In the UFC whether a fighter has a fight lined up or not, they are tested. In boxing the fighters are removed from the testing pool when they do not have a fight arranged.

Joshua won the Olympic gold medal in 2012 at 22 years old, Mike Tyson was already world champion for 2 years at the same age. Granted he wanted to fight in his home city London and therefore waited it out. This meant fighting younger men some who were not fully grown at 19.

This means Joshua held himself back from turning pro to pole vault his career via the Olympics against much younger opponents. You’d think that being a bit older he’d be in a rush to turn pro. However it took Joshua 1 year and 2 months to have his first professional fight. This gave him plenty of time being out of the testing pool to take steroids if he choose to. We could be wrong but his body transformation during this period was dramatic.

Strangely he added a large amount of muscle without adding any body fat, which anyone within the fitness world knows is impossible without steroids. Dillian Whyte in fact called Joshua out on this fact as did drug cheat Jarrell Miller;

“It’s written clear as day man, I don’t have to say it, you can do your own research and look at it. My dad was a bodybuilder growing up, a lot of gyms I’ve trained in have bodybuilder athletes, so we know about steroids.”

“Anybody who comes out of the amateurs at 220-something pounds, and a year later he’s on 240-something, there’s something wrong with that picture,” Miller said of the IBF, WBA and WBO heavyweight champion.”

Between the Povetkin and Ruiz fight there were 9 months, this is normal for top level fighters but without being in the testing pool for 6 of those months before the fight is annoucned there’s nothing stopping Joshua from using steroids if he chooses.

So why did he get beat by “fat boy” Ruiz?

Fighting in America

Until Ruiz every Joshua fight had been held in the UK. Joshua is the countries darling and the leading light for olympic boxing/the London Olympics along with Mo Farah.

If he were to ever be found using steroids it would tarnish everything the British Olympic Committee have worked for. This leads to questions being asked and reduction in funding if true.

Not to say that this is happening, but it is within the interests of UK boxing to let Joshua keep winning by any means possible.

Before the Ruiz fight we had discussed that the fight being in America would be an issue as Joshua would not receive favoured treatment by the US commissions regarding blood and urine samples. For all we know the UK comissions are just as strict for one of their own as everybody else, but this is our opinion.

Joe Rogan

Post the fight, Joe Rogan announced on his podcast that a “good source” of his claims Joshua was knocked out badly in sparring.

We all know how the fight went, but many claim that Joshua did not look himself. Getting knocked out and then stopped all within the space of 1 month for what is supposed to be the best heavyweight in the world is worrying especially at 29 years old where he should be entering his prime. For someone who lives a clean life and as far as we know works very hard, it would be wrong to assume he wasn’t dedicated or in shape.

Many also claim that Joshua’s Father tried to call the fight off prior to him walking out because he didn’t look right. Before the fight many brought up the fact that Joshua looked uninterested leaning on the ropes right up until the bell went. Eddie Hearn was quick to point out that he always does this before fights which we haven’t checked.

Could this have been a result of the side effects of steroids? Once you stop using, testosterone drops as your natural production of the hormone is prevented for half the time you were taking the steroids for.

Rematch

Saudi Arabia? I’m sorry what? The rematch will take place in Saudi Arabia which confirmed everything we believed would happen the moment he lost. We claimed that Joshua’s would fight under the protection of the UK once again in the rematch in order to have favourable testing. With many people saying Joshua isn’t capable of fighting and winning outside of the UK however he and his team opted for a neutral venue.

We’re not sure what Saudi Arabia’s testing is like for sports, but if Dubai is anything to go by then they’ve shown us that people can be bought and are willing to step outside of the rules for financial gains.

It would not be unfair to claim, that if Joshua is taking steroids, then Saudi Arabia would hardly be the toughest testing to pass for the right money. Again just our opinion.

Unless Ruiz does the same, we think the same old powerhouse Joshua returns for the rematch and blows any Ruiz away with everyone claiming the first fight was a blip and AJ is back.