Anthony Joshua returns to the ring after a year on December 12th to defend his WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight titles against Kubrat Pulev.
Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, Joshua’s last fight was his win against Andy Ruiz Jr. in their rematch to regain the belts he had lost to the Mexican six months earlier at Madison Square Garden.
This remains the only flaw in the champion’s professional record and Manny Robles, who led Ruiz to fleeting championship fame, has shared with Bulgarian Pulev what he sees as Joshua’s greatest weakness.
“The right hand,” said Robles Marc Gatford on the blog MyBettingSites.co.uk.
“If you measure your right hand correctly and poke your chest, poke your body, and come over with your right hand, I think Joshua is vulnerable.
“You saw that in the Povetkin fight that landed the right hand. Most of the fighters who injured Joshua – it was the right hand. When you’re not working on keeping your left hand up or getting away from your right hand.” The same will continue to happen.
“I have to work on that defense. Joshua is a great fighter, a great person, but he is also vulnerable, he is a person. He is not perfect, he makes mistakes. And we took advantage of those mistakes in June 2019.”
“Pulev is no stroll in a park, he’s a seasoned fighter. He’s definitely the type of fighter who gives Joshua a run for his money. Pulev doesn’t have the quickness Andy has, but if you study him you break him together and work out a good game plan that he could be effective with. “
Robles was fired weeks after Ruiz lost the rematch in Saudi Arabia to the boxer’s father Andy Ruiz Sr.
And the coach went into detail on how he was helping Ruiz Jr. focus on his job and get his life back on track before he was unceremoniously fired.
“Andy just came back from a loss, his first loss,” said Robles. “They came and talked to me and I took him under my wing. He went through many ups and downs; he didn’t fight, he didn’t make any money and he was pretty broke.
“He didn’t have a place to stay, so I had to find him a place to stay so I wouldn’t lose him. I understood what I was working with, I understood that this kid was talented.
“I didn’t want to lose him on the streets or quit boxing, so I had to find a way to keep him in LA, put a roof over his head – and that’s exactly what I did. I found him a place to stay , Food, everything a fighter needs to stay focused.
“We managed to keep him here and little by little his luck changed for the better. Things started to fit together. He got the opportunity to fight Joshua and everyone knows the story.
“It wasn’t luck; he was ready, he was prepared, he was focused, he was hungry. And when he won the world title, everything changed.”
In interviews since his January release, Robles revealed he felt doomed to such a fate after Ruiz failed to show any motivation or desire prior to the rematch.
After all, it is often the coach who takes the brunt of the burden after a major loss.
“I had to endure a lot, I had to endure a lot, it wasn’t fun,” continued Robles. “I did my best to get him to focus on the fight and keep him disciplined, but unfortunately his mind was elsewhere.”
Pulev will hope to be the second man to dethrone Joshua in a fight on December 12th that will be shown live at the Sky Sports Box Office in the UK and DAZN in the US
Ruiz, now led by Eddy Reynoso, is expected to return to the ring in early 2021 after recently ruling out the bouts ending before 2020.
