British-Nigerian boxer, Anthony Joshua has made some bold statements about Andy Ruiz as their disagreement over the location of their rescheduled fight thickens.
Months back, Joshua shocked his fans around the world after losing to the Mexican-American boxer at the seventh round of their fight in New York City.
But weeks after, Joshua, through his management began demanding for a rematch in the United Kingdom. Their offer was met with stiff rejection as Ruiz insisted that he would rather have the rematch in Mexico or the UK again.
Joshua, who has not reacted to the rejection until now, stated that he would still defeat Ruiz, even if his uncle were to be the referee for the match.
He said, “Ruiz, I’ve seen he’s done a lot of talking about what he wants, but he don’t call the shots in that sense, it’s a team effort,” Joshua told Sky Sports.
“It’s fine, I don’t mind fighting him in America, I’ve done it before, and I’d love to fight here because I had no reason to go in the first place. I went there off my own back, so for the rematch now, I would love it to be in Cardiff, however, [if] it’s going to be on neutral ground, Ruiz is the champ, we’ll kind of make some calls as well in that situation.
“But I’m going to battle for it to be in the UK because it’s my stomping ground. I done one out there, so let’s do the rematch here.
“I think it will be amazing before the year is out and I’ll definitely be having a lovely new year with my family.”
On the location of the rematch, Joshua explained, “There’s two ends to it. One, I’ll fight in Tijuana and Ruiz’s uncle can be the referee and I’ll still whoop him. It doesn’t matter to me where it is – there’s that aspect.
“But then there’s the other where the British fans that have been riding with me from day one want to see me get them belts back.
“I’ll never forget in the Olympics when I walked out, I tried to block out the energy in that room, and that was the worst thing because I was fighting a battle I couldn’t win.
“So walking out in Cardiff in front of 70, 80, 90,000 people screaming for me to win, that type of energy that goes through your body is unstoppable. However, it’s going to be on neutral ground.”
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