Andy Ruiz Jr. wonders whether a slimmed-down Anthony Joshua can take a punch

With unified heavyweight champion Andy Ruiz Jr. preparing himself to keep his hands on the world titles he won from Anthony Joshua last June, the titleholder has noticed that Joshua has shed some muscle mass for their rematch, and wonders if that’ll work out any better for him.

“I saw videos where he looked slimmer. I don’t know if that’s an advantage or a disadvantage.

”I don’t know if he will take the punches as well as he did when he weighed more.”

The prevailing thought here is that Joshua will seek to be more mobile and nimble in this upcoming rematch. But, really, Joshua can’t afford to have a miscalculation here as another loss to Ruiz could likely be devastating for his career prospects moving forward.

But Ruiz too has been seen shedding some pounds — something certain boxing insiders don’t think is such a great idea. Ruiz, however, insists that he doesn’t plan on weigh-in much lighter than he did in his last fight with Joshua, and that he’s just working to get to a point where he feels strong and sharp.

“Me? People are saying I lost too much weight, I won’t be strong, he will move me around. I am losing eight pounds from what I weighed on June 1. I’ll still be the same, I’ll still be strong.”

Ruiz finishes by saying that he doesn’t have any target weight in mind, and that once he feels he’s in peak form, his weight will fall wherever it may.