Anthony Joshua predicts eleventh round KO of Kubrat Pulev and warns he will NOT fight on back foot like Ruiz Jr win
ANTHONY JOSHUA predicted he will knock out Kubrat Pulev in round 11 and warned he could ditch the back foot boxing tactics that beat Andy Ruiz Jr.
Unified heavyweight champion AJ announced his next defence against 38-year-old Bulgarian Pulev on June 20 at Tottenham’s stadium in the capital.
Joshua, 30, exacted revenge on Ruiz to win back the WBA, IBF and WBO belts last December, six months after being stunned by the fast but chubby contender with a round seven stoppage.
AJ slimmed down for the rematch and outboxed Ruiz with caution in Saudi Arabia but warned Pulev is in for a different night in London.
Joshua told William Hill: “That fight with Ruiz was a must-win. It was a must-win. If I wanted the same result then I would have done the same thing as June 1st. And that got me beat.
"So naturally, a smart fighter goes back, adapts, adjusts, changes some of the plans on the drawing board and goes out to battle again to get a victory.
"And that was the whole point of the matter, I'm victorious now.
“The style is what I may not take into the next fight. Styles for me, I can always adapt, I can change styles as you see, drastically.
"Mentally yeah I'm going to take the same drive, the same motivation, the same understanding that not everyone believes in me. And the same understanding I've got to do it for my supporters.
"So we'll see how it fares when I start studying Pulev and I'll start adapting my style towards that.”
When asked to predict the result, Joshua replied: "Round 11.”
Pulev - who pulled out of fighting AJ in 2017 through injury - has lost just once, against Wladimir Klitschko in 2014, and has 14 knockouts in his 28 wins.
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AJ reckons the former European champions shares a similar style to him and told fans to expect a mixture of skill and punching power.
He said: "He can bang and his can box so he's a boxer-puncher. Kind of like what my style is as well, so it will be a good match-up for sure.
"So we're going to box, people are going to be seeing some skills and they're probably going to see a knockout as well because you've got two boxer-punchers.”
