By now, you’ve likely heard that in a shocking upset Andy Ruiz, Jr. stopped Anthony Joshua in the seventh round of their fight, becoming the first-ever Mexican heavyweight champion by taking Joshua’s IBO, IBF, WBO and WBA titles. The ramifications of this upset are wide-reaching, both in the boxing world and beyond, and I’d like to look at them individually.
1. Conspiracy Theories
Immediately after the fight, boxing Twitter was under siege by fans convinced something about Joshua was off. The primary piece of evidence for these theories, which ranged from Joshua having an illness to having been drugged, was a clip from between rounds where Joshua appears to say to his corner “Why am I feeling like this?