At the end of the fight Usyk hit Joshua so much so that Joshua lowered his hands and was sitting on the ropes waiting to be battered and floored, he thought a KO was coming but Usyk was also out of stream by that point and was waiting to get his breath back to begin his final flurry of punches but the bell was sounded - it was round 12 after all.
Had it been 19 seconds remaining instead of 9 then Usyk would have won by knockout because Joshua would not have risen before the count of 10.
The defeats to Ruiz and Usyk proved how technically inept Joshua really is. With that body frame and physical aesthetics he should be bullying opponents and being on the front foot but he is incapable of doing that against dangerous opponents. The more worrying thing for team Joshua and the fighter himself would be the manner in which his victories came against fighters that he should have defeated within 3-4 rounds such as Povetkin (7 rounds) and Pulev (9 rounds) when both fighters around 39 years old. Even the victory against Wladimir Klitschko was a close call because Joshua was floored for the first time in his career but he ended up defeating 41 year old Klitschko in 11 rounds.
Those statistics do not provide reason to be enthusiastic about Joshua vs Usyk II. If Joshua loses to Usyk then his career is effectively over but if he manages to defeat Usyk he will probably be beaten by the winner of Fury vs Wilder III because on current he will be demolished by Fury and would not stand much of a chance against Wilder either.
For Joshua if he really wants redemption and he really wants to be taken seriously then he needs an emphatic victory against Usyk by a KO because there is no way he can outbox or outlast Usyk over 12 rounds. Joshua needs a new game plan otherwise he will face the consequences of his inaction when he meets Usyk for the re-match.
In any case, if there is a rematch, I would bet Joshua. This might only be another Ruiz moment, I reckon.
Nah, I don't think so. The Ruiz fight Joshua was winning the fight prior to being caught when they were exchanging back, and forth. In fact, I believe he had already knocked down Ruiz a few times prior to being knocked down himself. However, this fight was completely different, he was never winning in this fight, and it didn't even look close. Unfortunately, the score cards by the judges make it closer than it actually was, and probably because of the British bias, but I had Joshua winning maybe 4 rounds maximum, but probably more like 3 rounds at a push.
He was outworked, out skilled, and looked like he got wobbled quite a few times, and not just the once in the last few seconds of the last round. He would need to significantly improve, and probably revert back to his old ways, and go for the knockout quickly. Otherwise, Usyk will do more of the same in the rematch.