Mike Tyson wants Anthony Joshua to be more confident going into his rematch with Andy Ruiz Jr.
Joshua suffered the first defeat of his boxing career after losing to Ruiz Jr. by way of technical knockout last June, in what many considered as the biggest upset in boxing to date.
The British boxer will have the opportunity to avenge this loss in his rematch with the Mexican set on December 7 in Saudi Arabia.
Ruiz Jr is looking to pull off another upset and has vowed to send AJ to his retirement by beating him again.
But Joshua said the rematch would be a different story and he wants people to bow to him when he recaptures the heavyweight titles.
“I’m fighting the best man in the world now. I’m going to whup him, and show how great I am,”
“They think he’s so great, so when I beat him I want everybody to bow to my feet and tell me how great I am.”
Confident And Intelligent
Ahead of this highly-awaited rematch, boxing legend Mike Tyson has some advice for Joshua, who could suffer traumatic flashbacks this February according to David Haye.
In a recent interview, Joshua admitted he could be mentally scarred by his shocking defeat last June.
He also said he was less prepared that time against Ruiz, who stepped in as replacement for his original opponent Jarrell Miller on a short-notice.
To this, Tyson expects AJ to study and correct his mistakes from the first fight and wants him to be confident of his chances against Ruiz.
“Obviously he knows what happened, because I’m sure he’s watched the films,” the boxing legend told Parimatch.
“Because if he’s intelligent like I believe he is, he watched the films over and over of the last encounter he had with Ruiz.”
“And he’s worried, but he should be confident that he can be successful.”
Best Man Wins
Tyson has also commented on Ruiz Jr’s body transformation, saying it was not necessary.
“I just don’t think that makes any sense.”
“But everybody has their own thing, their vanity gets the best of them, they say ‘Hey, I wanna look good doing this stuff’, I don’t know. But I’m a believer that if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.”
“The only thing Ruiz has to do is do what he did last fight. That’s all he has to live off of, from his memories, so to speak, from the last fight.”
Asked about his prediction for the rematch, Tyson answered “I don’t know because anything is possible.”
“They’re both great human beings, I like both of them personally, but this is a fight and I just hope the best man wins.”
(Featured Image Source: Instagram/ Anthony Joshua and Mike Tyson)