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8th December 2019
10:20am GMT

Joshua boxed hard and smart, using his jab to keep Ruiz at bay and barely looking troubled throughout. The champion must have known he was behind on the judges' scorecards, going into the final rounds, as there was a late press at the start of the 11th and 12th rounds but he flagged and could not press Joshua as he would have wanted.
At the end, with Joshua confidently raising his hands before his name was called out, the judges unanimously went against Ruiz (118-110, 118-110, 119-109). The belt's were back in Joshua's hands.
Following the fight, Ruiz admitted that he had been celebrating his June world title victory a little too hard, and for a little too long. He told reporters:
"I should have trained harder. I should have listened to my team and coaches. For this fight I was overweight. I didn't move how I wanted to." "I don't want to say the three months of partying or celebrating didn't affect me," he added, "as, to tell you the truth, it kind of did. There's no excuses. The partying got the best of me. The next fight is going to be a lot different. "People are still doubting me. I am still a dangerous fighter to anyone in the division. At 100% I can dominate anyone in the world. You best believe I am going to come back and be the heavyweight champion of the world once again."Ruiz is pressing for a trilogy fight against Joshua but may well have to take a ticket and get in line. Joshua looks set to defend his WBO crown against that division's No.1 contender Oleksandr Usyk in Spring 2020. While he awaits that fight, should it come down the line, Ruiz can reflect on the $13 million pay-day he received for defending those four world titles. Joshua, the challenger, is reported to have earned north of $60m for the bout, up from the $25m he claimed for his summer loss to Ruiz.
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