Anthony Joshua has finally spoken on his speculated rematch with Andy Ruiz Jr, months after suffering the lone loss of his career following a shocking 7th round knockout by the Mexican-born American boxer at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Speaking on the controversy the venue of the fight has generated, Joshua said he doesn’t care where the rematch holds because he will still “whoop” Ruiz. He however added that he will love to have the fight in Cardiff.
“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.”
When asked whether staging the rematch in the UK would give him the advantage, the ex- WBA, IBF and WBO title holder said:
“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.”
