Anthony Joshua opponent Andy Ruiz Jr thought he was too fat for boxing and last fought on a uni campus… in the daytime
ANDY RUIZ is going from boxing in a daytime bout at a university campus and thinking he was too fat to fight to taking on unified world champion Anthony Joshua at the iconic Madison Square Garden.
AJ, 29, was all set to make his US debut against trash-talking Jarell Miller in New York on June 1 – before the American failed three doping tests.
Watford ace Joshua and Eddie Hearn were left scrambling for a replacement and look to have found their man in 29-year-old Ruiz.
The fight will not be the first time the California-born scrapper has challenged for a world title, having lost to Joseph Parker in a close points decision for the WBO strap in December 2016.
Parker would go on to surrender that belt to AJ two years later in Cardiff, while Ruiz has gone on to win three on the spin since then – taking his record to 32-1.
Despite racking up the wins, he is not even in the IBF and WBO’s top 15 contenders and many British fight fans will still be asking themselves “Andy who?”.
Well, ask away no more…
TOO FAT TO FIGHT
Ruiz is known for having an unlikely combination of a podgy belly and lightning quick hands – and even he questioned if he was “too fat” to be a boxer.
Promoter Bob Arum admitted his less-than-chiselled frame meant no one would give him credit for winning as he looked like a “fat slob”.
Arum said: “Even though he was winning, nobody would credit him as being legitimate because he looked like a slob – it was always, ‘Yeah, he’s a fat slob but his hands are so fast’.
“But he wasn’t pleasing when he fought.”
Ruiz would go on to lose nearly a stone and a half in a bid to gain appreciation for his wins and said cutting out fast foods was the key.
He revealed: “A lot of stuff, all the fast food, the cheap food, the dollar menu – I had to cut all that off. You can train so hard and eat bad stuff and you’re training for no reason.”
DAYLIGHT FIGHTER
In Ruiz’s last fight he beat Alexander Dimitrenko – who has fought former Parker, Bryant Jennings and Kubrat Pulev – and halted the German in five rounds while the sun was still shining.
The win came at the Dignity Health Sports Park – a university campus in California – which hosts LA Galaxy fixtures.
Ruiz’s victory was next to the football pitch, on the tennis court arena, with the fight taking place in the daytime before former two-weight world champ Danny Garcia topped the bill by beating Adrian Granados.
In his previous win, against veteran Kevin Johnson, Ruiz – who is 11th in the WBA rankings – actually called out Joshua’s would-be opponent Miller.
He said: “I’d love to face Jarrell Miller or any of the big guys out there, and they’ll probably underestimate me after this performance. The next one will be different.”
FORCED TO BOX
After the young Andres Ponce Ruiz Jr was forced to box by his father Andres Sr aged just seven and told he could not play baseball, he went on to have an amateur record of 105-5 under Cuban trainer Fernando Ferrer.
The Californian would represent Mexico at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games qualification tournaments but after defeats against Cuba’s Robert Alfonso and Colombian Oscar Rivas, Ruiz was eliminated.
A year later, at the age of 19, the heavyweight made his pro debut against Miguel Ramirez, winning with a first round KO.
‘THE DESTROYER’
Despite owning 21 KOs in his 32 wins, the heavyweight is not nicknamed “The Destroyer” due to his punching power.
Instead he inherited that name as a youngster who liked to destroy anything he got his hands on.
Ruiz said: “They called me the Destroyer because I was always destroying stuff. They’d buy me a toy and the next day I would break it.”
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FIGHTING FURY
After Ruiz beat Franklin Lawrence in September 2016 he set up a WBO final eliminator against Hughie Fury – which was set to take place on the cancelled rematch between Tyson Fury and Wladimir Klitschko.
The Destroyer was set to fight Hughie at the Manchester Arena, but after Tyson pulled out of his main event against Klitschko, Ruiz also withdrew from his bout to look elsewhere.
Ruiz would then go on to be beaten by Parker, who two fights later defended the WBO title successfully against Hughie at the Manchester Arena.