Fighter of the Week: Andy Ruiz Jr

Fighter of the Week: Andy Ruiz Jr

By Gary Kittilsen

Awarding this weeks Fighter of the Week should be no surprise. A seismic shock happened in the ring this weekend at Madison Square Garden, the Mecca of Boxing.

Andy Ruiz jr fought a brilliant fight to become a part of a rare group, a unified heavyweight champion of the world. Ruiz a 12-1 betting underdog pulled himself up off of the canvas in the third round to produce the round of the year, the fight of the year and the upset of the decade.

No one gave Ruiz much of a chance, a late replacement without much fanfare. Ruiz had lost his only title shot dropping a close competitive decision to Joseph Parker back in 2016, Parker went on to lose his title in one-sided fashion to Anthony Joshua last year. There was no reason to suspect Ruiz could pull the massive upset.

Ruiz fought competitively in the first two rounds, probably not winning the rounds but he accounted well for himself and showed that at least through the first two rounds he was in the fight and fighting to win.

Then the third round happened and a picture-perfect left hook dropped the challenger. The boxing world though that was it for the game challenger. However, Ruiz pulled himself up and went full steam ahead after Joshua landing a left hook of his own that stunned the champ.

Ruiz jumped on the staggered champion and put him to the canvas for the first time of the night. Joshua got to his feet but Ruiz stayed on the attack and floored the champ for a second time with just seconds left in the round. Joshua was able to survive the third and the paced slowed in the fourth as the two boxed pretty evenly over the next two rounds.

In the sixth, the champ looked fatigued and the challenger seized the moment and took control again and completed the upset in the seventh by putting the champ down two more times causing referee Mike Griffin to step in and call a halt to the bout. A confident and newly crowned heavyweight champion said in the post-fight press conference:

“I knew that I could beat him, I knew my abilities would give him troubles the speed, I knew he opened up to much”

The new unified champ will have plenty of options for the rest of 2019 and as long as he holds onto his straps. AJ has a rematch clause in the contract which he could exercise. A rematch Ruiz, a Calfornia native, wants in the Staples Center in Los Angeles but Joshua wants in the UK. It will also be easy to make a fight for undisputed status against the winner of Deontay Wilder vs Luis Ortiz. as both fighters are under the PBC promotional banner.

Eddie Hearn also expressed that the WBO was going to call its mandatory which is Dillian Whyte. All of those options are extremely lucrative and will make Ruiz, who was fairly unknown before this weekend, a much bigger star in the US and abroad.