CASE STUDY ANTHONY JOSHUA VERSUS ANDY RUIZ
#AnthonyJoshuaVsAndyRuiz
In the words of Jack Dempsey,
“A champion is someone who gets up when they can’t “. Sadly, our Anthony just wasn’t it. Moving on.
Boxing is won by the hungriest. To win, you have to be the guy that trains daily, wakes up, hit and think, especially during the rounds. You have to be that guy who gets up at six o’clock in the morning regardless of what time it is. And you normally begin to lose that vibe as you succeed.
Just like most things in life, its success in it becomes the greatest enemy of its success. After you stand on your feet, learn to stay on your toes. But it’s harder when what used to motivate you, the hunger is way behind. Ruiz wasn’t a stronger fighter but a hungrier one. That’s how you win. My mother would say that it’s the person that isn’t hungry that’d say that the coconut has a hard shell. But once you’re full, you care less about coconuts According to Motivational Psychology Theory, Abraham Maslow said it best in the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs that “WHAT A MAN HAS ACHIEVED CAN NO LONGER SERVE AS MOTIVATION.”
I totally agree with my friend AYO Moses that, when you are up, the easiest way to go is down. And when you are down, your easiest way to go is up. I hope the realization of those states and the facts behind keeps us in the desired positions.
In the end contact sports is more entertainment than the rest. The more contact the sports, the more entertaining, expensive and riskier. Boxing is an expensive sport with a lot of white men watching two black men beat each other up Think about one guy losing three titles in one match. Connecting it to a more conservative sport as football, Imagine losing Champions League, FA Cup, Super Cup, and EPL because you lost one match. Lol. It’s okay to ask, set the rules in boxing?
As a management and business strategist who’s spent over a decade around board room politics, and from a business and marketing perspective, you really can’t rule out very high level yet subliminal match-fixing (not technical but psychological), the IBOs would try to ensure an upset once in a while to bring in that nostalgia but more so AJ is still a more sellable champion and we’d see them a bit make it easier to have him come back. In line with subliminal fixing, the facts are, they gave Anthony Joshua this opponent just 4 weeks ago when the boxer he was scheduled to fight tested positive to enhanced drugs 3 times and our brother jumped at this new contact because of money though not fully prepared. The now-former heavyweight chief was due to collect a career-best purse of £18m for his stateside bow. I think he actually underrated Andy Ruiz, I’m sure if he was fighting somebody of his class he would’ve prepared a lot more like wen he fought and won Wladimir Klitschko. Now that’s psychological fixing at play. It’s good business for boxing. ICYMI Anthony Joshua lost overnight to Andy Ruiz Jr. Thanks to a rematch clause on that fight he will get the chance to try to get his belts back before the end of the year during fall.
From a brand strategy perspective, I am unsure of the new champion’s longevity with the belt. Weird view but top brands want to have someone with sway, and that new champion, who I’d describe as “the bros’ wey be like Igbo potbellied spare part trader for Ladipo” is unlikely to become the new face of boxing and brand merchandise promoter for too long. Aesthetics and Brand Strategy is a part of most business decisions, including sports. Same reason why the likes of Beckham and Ronaldo are given head starts on the field to inspire off the field brand associations and business. Brands love ambassadors that look cool. Boxing is big business. Same as most things in life. And your win and loss is mainly dependent on you. In the words of Mile Tyson, “You never lose until you actually give up.” #HexavianBusinessTips
Eizu, ©Hexavia!
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Uwaoma Eizu is the lead strategist at Hexavia! He is a graduate of Mathematics with two MBAs and over a decade of experience working with startups and big businesses. His core is in building startups and in corporate restructuring. He is also a certified member of the Nigerian Institute of Management, Institute of Strategic Management of Nigeria and the Project Management Institute, USA. By the side, he writes weekly for the BusinessDay newspaper.
