Lennox Lewis has stated that he believes Anthony Joshua’s June 1 bout against Andy Ruiz Jr will be a good fight, despite it not being what was desired at this moment in time.

Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn finally confirmed the news that Ruiz Jr would replace Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller at Madison Square Garden earlier this week, after the latter was pulled from the original heavyweight clash for testing positive for several banned substances.

Lewis and Joshua haven’t had the smoothest of relationships over the years, with Lewis firing consistent criticism towards the WBA, IBF and WBO heavyweight champion while questioning his ‘bad decisions’.

The former three-time world heavyweight champion has spoken positively, however, about Joshua’s upcoming title bout.

Speaking at this weekend’s Canelo v Jacobs event in Las Vegas, he said: “You know what? I think that’s a good fight.

"Andy has some heavy hands. The experience level, he’s lacking that a little bit, but they need a fight right now and Andy stood up for it.

“It’s not what you want, not what he wanted, but I don’t even know what the plan is with them, so I can’t really comment on it.”

Joshua has reacted to Lewis’ criticism on a number of occasions, insisting that the last man to be undisputed heavyweight champion wouldn’t say the same things ‘face-to-face’ and that he’d ‘go down a different path’ once he hangs up his gloves.

Should Ruiz pull off one of boxing’s major shocks on June 1, he’ll become the first ever Mexican heavyweight champion of the world and has stated it will ‘change everything’ for him and his family.

He’s got a record of 32-1 with 21 KOs in comparison to Joshua’s unbeaten record of 22-0, also with 21 KOs, so there should be a good fight in store in New York.

It should be noted that Ruiz Jr's sole loss came against Joseph Parker in December 2016, the only man to take Joshua the whole distance, ultimately losing on points.