![]() What we all saw, though, was an extraordinary comeback. “Anthony Joshua is a composed and ferocious finisher,” he said. ![]() He got up, but viewers assumed that the night was pretty much over, and so did Chris Mannix, one of the commentators for the streaming network DAZN, which showed the fight in America. In the beginning of the third round, Joshua hit Ruiz with a straight right hand and then, a moment later, a right uppercut and a left hook Ruiz landed on his backside, looking up at the referee. Ruiz’s victory was unexpected, but it didn’t look like a fluke, or a lucky punch. (Here, sticklers might interrupt once more to note that, because boxing is a disorganized sport, that Ruiz is not the only heavyweight champion: Deontay Wilder, the ludicrously powerful puncher from Alabama, is also a kind of champion so is Tyson Fury, huge and cagy Briton, who is scheduled to fight Wilder on February 22nd.) A few days later, Ruiz added another championship belt to his collection: a novelty Snickers belt, in honor of his favorite snack. (Sticklers might note that Evander Holyfield’s knockout of Tyson, in 1996, was a pretty big upset, too, although perhaps less shocking, because by then we had already seen Tyson knocked out.) Ruiz put his newly acquired championship belts on Kimmel’s desk, and he seemed to enjoy his new reputation as an unlikely celebrity. “They say this is the biggest upset since Buster Douglas,” Kimmel said, referring to Douglas’s shocking knockout of Mike Tyson, in 1990. He strolled onto the set of “ Jimmy Kimmel Live!” as a heavyweight champion and a kind of folk hero. By the following Tuesday, Ruiz’s life had changed considerably. At the end of the press conference, when the two stood side by side, with Joshua holding four championship belts, Ruiz looked less like Joshua’s opponent and more like a junior member of Joshua’s entourage. Joshua was muscular and confident Ruiz was jiggly and unassuming. ![]() Ruiz was a substitute opponent, given the fight after another boxer failed drug tests, and oddsmakers made him as a big underdog: a two-thousand-dollar bet on Joshua would have paid out only twenty-one hundred dollars. He was a competent but rather undistinguished heavyweight boxer, thrown into the biggest fight of his life, at Madison Square Garden, against Anthony Joshua, the imposing and undefeated British star, who held a handful of championship belts. He sounded as if he were only window shopping, and most people thought that was exactly what he was doing. He lost to Yuniel Dorticos in 2018 ( Yuniel Dorticos vs Mateusz Masternak) but since then he has won six consecutive fights defeating Felipe Nsue, Armend Xhoxhaj and Jason Whateley.“Those belts look really shiny-really good, man,” Andy Ruiz, Jr., said with a gentle smile, at a press conference on May 30th. His opponent, Mateusz Masternak, has an official record of 47-5-0 (31 knockouts) but he is not ranked as he hasn’t fought for more than one year. He suffered his only loss when he faced Richard Riakporhe in 2019 (via split decision), since then he has won nine bouts defeating Isaac Chamberlain ( Chris Billam-Smith vs Isaac Chamberlain), Armend Xhoxhaj ( Chris Billam-Smith vs Armend Xhoxhaj) and Lawrence Okolie in his last three ( Lawrence Okolie vs Chris Billam-Smith). The current Wbo Cw champ Chris Billam-Smith entered this fight with a professional boxing record of 18-1-0 (12 knockouts) and he is ranked as the No.3 cruiserweight in the world (currently the #1 in this division is Gilberto Ramirez). Masternak vs Billam-Smith is scheduled to take place Sunday, December 10th, at the Bournemouth International Centre in Bournemouth (United Kingdom), in a 12-round cruiserweight (200 lbs, 90.7 kg) bout it is the main event of the evening and it is valid for the WBO world cruiserweight title (Billam-Smith’s first defense). Review by :, disappointing boxing match: Chris Billam-Smith vs Mateusz Masternak gets two stars (take a look at our ranking of the Best Boxing Fights of 2023).
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