Now technically I see the 2nd fight as even more in favor of Ruiz because Joshua has had to make radical changes in his style after embarrassingly kissing the canvas so many times, now he is slimmer and trying to be more nimble,
Doesn't really matter how much Joshua slims down, he was completely outclassed in the first fight, and he really didn't even try to dodge most of the punches. He just took a full clip of punches right to the head and body practically every time he hit Ruiz with a good shot. He then just closed down, with a high guard but was still taking shots to the temple.
Even if there is strong pressure on the judges to award him any decisions, the next fight is unlikely to go the distance to reach the scorecards. Someone is getting knocked-the-f-out.
Was Anthony Joshua really outclassed during the first fight? He knocked down Andy Ruiz which was also Andy's first time to be knocked down by anyone according to some articles.
If he was outclassed, I reckon it would be more because Anthony Joshua was not fighting on 100% condition.
He was also knocked down on the same round by Andy Ruiz, Joshua should have finished that fight by round 3. Fortunately, Ruiz quickly recovered and put Anthony Joshua's ass on the floor. And from then on, you can see that Joshua is done. He can't hurt Ruiz, and Andy was coming forward with everything he got, so I would say Joshua was outclassed and never recovered from the first knocked down. His excuses is that he is looking for the Wilder fight, and not the fighter in front of him.