Evander Holyfield wasn't shocked when Andy Ruiz upset Anthony Johsua
Evander Holyfield isn’t picking a winner in the Andy Ruiz Jr.-Anthony Joshua rematch. Not yet, anyway. But he might not have been as surprised as the rest of the world by Ruiz’s upset of Joshua in June.
Ruiz surprised him, too, 11 years ago. They sparred.
“He was 19, I was 46,’’ Holyfield said in Las Vegas before his son Evan made a spectacular debut at junior middleweight, stopping Nick Winstead 16 seconds after the opening bell on the Canelo Alvarez-Sergey Kovalev card at the MGM Grand.
They sparred for four to five weeks, said Holyfield, now a 57-year-old dad.
“Usually, when I sparred with anybody for four, five weeks, I’d bust him up,’’ the four-time heavyweight champion said. “But I couldn’t get away from him. As the older fighter, you usually got the experience. But you gotta have hustle, too.’’
The December 7 rematch in Saudi Arabia, Holyfield said, will be determined by adjustments.
“Great fighters make adjustments,’’ Holyfield said. “I think Joshua is the most decorated guy. I think he can make the most adjustments.’’
A key for Joshua, Holyfield said, will be in the kind of sparring he has been doing in training.
“When you’re the champ, you need sparring partners who put pressure on you,’’ Holyfield said. “You need sparring partners who will try to whip you. In my day, I paid them to try to beat me.’’
In large part, Holyfield says Joshua was unprepared for what happened to him at New York’s Madison Square Garden. Other than getting up from a knockdown to beat Wladimir Klitschko in an 11th-round TKO at London in 2017, Joshua had not seen much adversity before Ruiz, a late stand-in who knocked him down four times in a stunning seventh-round stoppage.
“He just wasn’t familiar with that,’’ Holyfield said. “Now he’s got to make the adjustments. I got whupped by Riddick Bowe (1992). I made the adjustments, came back and whupped him (1993).’’
Holyfield was asked about rumors that Klitschko is pondering a comeback.
“If you can come back for $10 million and put it in the bank, that’s nice,’’ he said. “But not me. I don’t need nobody to hit me anymore. I got what I need.’’