{"id":174163,"date":"2019-12-08T15:29:57","date_gmt":"2019-12-08T13:29:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/?p=174163"},"modified":"2019-12-08T14:32:45","modified_gmt":"2019-12-08T13:32:45","slug":"anthony-joshua-beats-andy-ruiz-jr-to-reclaim-world-heavyweight-titles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/?p=174163","title":{"rendered":"Anthony Joshua beats Andy Ruiz Jr to reclaim world heavyweight titles"},"content":{"rendered":"
Anthony Joshua has beaten Andy Ruiz Jr on a unanimous points decision in their world heavyweight title rematch in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n

Victory saw the British fighter reclaim the IBF, WBA, WBO and IBO belts he lost to his Mexican-American opponent in New York in June.<\/p>\n

The hotly-anticipated bout on the outskirts of the capital Riyadh was threatened by delay after a rare desert rainstorm rolled in just moments before the action got under way, but it went ahead as planned and Joshua took full advantage.<\/p>\n

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\"Boxing<\/p>\n<\/div>

Joshua won on a unanimous points decision<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The 30-year-old boxer stuck to his back-foot game plan to pick off a clear 118-110, 118-110, 119-109 verdict, resisting the urge to charge into battle with Ruiz to secure a composed triumph.<\/p>\n

His win was greeted with roars of approval from the capacity 16,000 crowd inside the Diriyah Arena, which was constructed in just two months for the event.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia, which has a poor record on human rights, had faced accusations of “sportswashing” during the build-up.<\/p>\n

Before the fight, Sky News’ sports correspondent Martha Kelner explained how the kingdom was being accused of hosting big events to “burnish its reputation abroad”.<\/p>\n

But an ecstatic Joshua was full of praise for the hosts afterwards and told Sky Sports he had learned a lot since his shock defeat to Ruiz during the summer.<\/p>\n

He told Sky Sports: “This is about boxing, I am used to knocking people out, but last time I got hurt, so I gave the man his credit, said I would correct myself again, I respect Andy so much.”<\/p>\n

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\"DIRIYAH,<\/p>\n<\/div>

\nImage:<\/span>
\nJoshua and Andy Ruiz Jr battled on the outskirts of Riyadh<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Ruiz, also aged 30, was in a reflective mood post-match, admitting he had “gained too much weight” and that Joshua was a deserved winner on the night.<\/p>\n

He earned his own cheers from the crowd when he talked up the prospect of a third fight, saying: “If we do a third fight you best believe I’m going to get in shape. I’ll be in the best shape of my life.”<\/p>\n

Joshua said he would remain “hungry and humble” despite his comprehensive win and seemed similarly keen on another rematch with Ruiz.<\/p>\n

He said: “He wants to go again – he’s a warrior.”<\/p>\n

When asked if he would consider taking on Ruiz for a third time, Joshua added: “Without a doubt.”<\/p>\n

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\"Anthony<\/p>\n<\/div>

\nImage:<\/span>
\nJoshua has regained the belts he lost in their first match in June<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The two men shared a hug in the ring at the close of play, having given each other a cut around their left eyes in the opening stages of the match.<\/p>\n

It took until the fourth round for the action to burst into life with an exchange on the bell, which served as a timely reminder of the danger posed by the champion.<\/p>\n

Joshua looked uncomfortable whenever he was drawn in close, but held his discipline well overall and had secured an emphatic victory by the time the final bell sounded.<\/p>\n

He has reportedly pocketed a record \u00a360m purse thanks to the win.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anthony Joshua has beaten Andy Ruiz Jr on a unanimous points decision in their world heavyweight title rematch in Saudi Arabia. Victory saw the British fighter reclaim the IBF, WBA, WBO and IBO belts he lost to his Mexican-American opponent in New York in June. The hotly-anticipated bout on the outskirts of the capital Riyadh […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":174164,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[897],"class_list":["post-174163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-more","tag-anthony-joshua"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=174163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/174164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=174163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=174163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=174163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}