Andy Ruiz Jr believes Joseph Parker will need to utilise a different approach if he is to become the first man to land a defeat on Anthony Joshua next year.

The Mexican-American suffered the only defeat of his career in December 2016 when Parker won via majority decision to claim the vacant WBO heavyweight title in Auckland.

Parker has since gone on to successfully defend his strap against Romanian Razvan Cojanu and England’s Hughie Fury.

The Kiwi looks likely to take on IBO and WBA champion Joshua at some point in the new year as both fighters look to take one step closer to unifying the division.

Negotiations have already the two camps have already started but their appears to be a disagreement over the split and a date is yet to be set.

Ruiz Jr insists he was never hurt by Parker when they met a year ago and feels the 25-year-old will need to come up with a different approach to beat the impressive Joshua.

“I think Joshua’s a little too strong. Joseph didn’t hurt me at all, not even one time.

Joseph Parker’s going to have to do something different to what he normally does to win this fight,” Ruiz Jr.

“I think it’ll be a good match up. It could go either way. Joshua is pretty good. He stays tall too much. He never had a pressure fighter on him all the time.”