Anthony Joshua’s trainer, Rob McCracken, admits that he realized his boxer was concussed after getting dropped twice in the third round of his TKO defeat to Andy Ruiz back on June 1 at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Ruiz was dropped during the third round, but Joshua got too anxious as he ran in to finish him off – leading to Ruiz catching him with a big counter. Joshua was then dropped twice in the round.
“I know him better than all these experts who virtually don’t know him or have met him once or twice so I knew he was concussed and I’m trying to get him through a few more rounds, one round at a time, and see where he’s at,” McCracken told the BBC. “‘Can he recover? Can he get back into this?’
“But he was glazy-eyed from when he got caught with that initial shot in round three and he carried that with him up until the end. It’s a nightmare situation, pro boxing is deadly and you’re in the corner with a heavyweight not responding as he should.”
After the third round, Joshua was asking his trainer “What round is it?” and “Why am I feeling like this?”
Ruiz closed the show in the seventh round when he dropped Joshua two more times to capture the WBA, IBF, WBO and IBO heavyweight titles.
Leading up to the fight, there were numerous claims that Joshua was knocked out in a sparring session and could have still been suffering the effects.
A few days after the loss, Joshua exercised his right to an immediate rematch.
The British superstar is now looking to turn back the tide, when he faces Ruiz in a rematch December 7 in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia.
Story By Boxing Clever
