“It is easy to do anything in victory, it is in defeat that a man reveals himself.”
Anthony Joshua may now fully grasp the words of Floyd Patterson, the first man to ever reclaim the heavyweight world title.
Patterson was smashed to the canvas seven times in the third round alone as he gave up his belts to Ingemar Johansson in 1959.
Joshua touched down twice in his own third-round hell in June when he was floored four times in all by Andy Ruiz Jr.
There are few lonelier places than the canvas as millions watch a fighter’s pride get assaulted in the name of entertainment. To come back, while staring the fear of humiliation in the face again, takes true courage.
In Saudi Arabia, as he danced around the hapless Ruiz to follow Patterson into the ‘two-time’ club, Joshua made a six-month rebuild look straight-forward.
“Simplicity is genius,” he declared afterwards.
It was anything but.
First came the subtle put downs, as Ruiz branded his rival “not a good boxer” within weeks of his own triumph. Joshua was seen shadow boxing on a tennis court around the same time.
Then came the one lingering opinion he privately found hard to shoulder – that he quit against the Mexican. He stayed silent and soaked up what was becoming a mental beating.
All was not well in the background before the New York loss. His father – who was seen berating promoter Eddie Hearn after Ruiz had shocked the world – is said to have continued his tirade back stage at Madison Square Garden. He felt his son had been let down by the choice of opponent.
There are often said to be two types of people in boxing – ‘boxing people’ and ‘television people’. Ruiz was, in the mind of some close to Joshua, a late stand-in chosen to satisfy the latter. The ‘boxing people’ knew it was a risk.
In beating Wladimir Klitschko in 2017, Joshua entered a bottleneck. There could be no turning back to face mediocrity. Fans would not pay to watch the careful development of a fighter who held titles that said he was already developed.
And as the pressure grew, Joshua, behind closed doors, felt his skillset was not progressing at the pace he wanted. It took Ruiz’s New York hammering to jolt change.
In came new pad men, new sparring partners, new weight loss and new hope. Joshua was not told to change, he pushed for it.
The time-consuming media events he could avoid or, at the least, shorten, were axed or trimmed respectively.
“You’ll be asking me very different questions on 8 December, I’ll beat Andy this time,” Joshua told BBC 5 Live’s Mike Costello two weeks before his date in the desert.
He is still yet to publicly say what he feels went wrong before his ugly defeat. He has hinted he wants to, only to again avoid offering clarity when asked after his Saudi win.
“The better man won,” he simply said regarding his summer mishap.
The fruits of the changes he has made since were obvious in the strange surroundings of Riyadh. He circled Ruiz like a roundabout while the accuracy of his jab and his judgment of distance prevented any car-crash finale.
“He was absolutely clinical and he never wasted a shot,” said 5 Live’s Steve Bunce. “He got it right in spectacular fashion.”
