Tyson Fury has told ESPN he believes Anthony Joshua will be knocked out again by ‘three-headed monster’ Andy Ruiz Jr. when the pair meet in a rematch in December.
Joshua (21-1, 20 KOs) was knocked down three times at Madison Square Garden, New York, on his way to a shock defeat to massive underdog Ruiz in June and the Brit will look to reclaim the WBA, IBF and WBO titles in a rematch on Dec. 7 in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia.
Fury (28-0-1, 20 KOs), however, is unconvinced Joshua has what it takes to avenge the defeat, and he believes the former unified title holder’s time at boxing’s top table is over.
“I’m a big believer in when one door closes, another one opens and it was all about Joshua at that time when he was fighting Ruiz,” Fury said during an appearance on ESPN’s First Take when asked whether he wanted Joshua to beat Ruiz to potentially set up a big-money fight between the pair.
“When he fought Ruiz, no-one gave him [Ruiz] a prayer, but now it’s all about Ruiz and I believe Ruiz does exactly the same the second time around and then Ruiz takes his place as the three-headed monster.”
Fury, who was appearing on First Take to announce his Sept. 14 fight with unbeaten Swede Otto Wallin, went on to compare Joshua’s defeat to Ruiz to Hasim Rahman’s victory over Lennox Lewis — an upset largely considered to be one of the biggest in the sport’s history.
However, Fury believes Ruiz dominated Joshua, and that the two upsets are completely different from each other.
“I thought Ruiz won every round in that fight,” Fury added. “It wasn’t a fluke punch like Hasim Rahman and Lennox Lewis. In the rematch, Lewis turned up and didn’t get hit with a punch and knocked him out.
“He [Joshua] clearly lost the rounds — he was getting outboxed, he was getting outfought and then he got knocked down three times to boot.”
Fury also discussed his potential rematch, planned to take place early next year, with WBC titlist Deontay Wilder. The pair fought to a draw last year in Los Angeles with Fury outboxing Wilder for large stretches of the fight before being knocked down twice — in the ninth and 12th rounds.
But this time, Fury believes he cannot leave the fate of the contest in the judges’ hands.
“The mistake I made last time, which I won’t make again, was believe that it will be a fair playing field because we know it isn’t going to be, so I must knock him out.” Fury said.
“I don’t believe I can get a points victory over here because I clearly won that last fight. I outboxed him every round other than the two he knocked me down in.
“It’s clearly not possible for me to get a points victory so I have to change my style, which I’m happy with because I’ve never been as strong, never punched as hard, I’ve never been as confident as I am today. I am going to knock him out this time.
“I’m not going to tip-tap around boxing because we know where that got us last time don’t we so I believe it’s going to be him or me [getting knocked out].”