By Jim Dower: Andy Ruiz Jr. will be emerging from a long 1 ½ year layoff to face 2004 U.S Olympian heavyweight Devin Vargas (20-4, , 8 KOs) in an 8 round bout on March 10 on the undercard of the clash between WBO World featherweight champion Oscar Valdez and Scott Quigg on ESPN at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.
Ruiz’s fight against Vargas won’t be on the televised portion of the ESPN card.
Known for his fast hands and good punching power, Ruiz Jr. hasn’t gotten the most out of his 9-year pro career. Ruiz Jr. was brought up slowly, and he’s hurt himself by inactive. The 29-year-old Ruiz Jr. hasn’t fought in 15 months since losing to Joseph Parker by a controversial 12 round majority decision loss on December 10, 2016 at the Spark Arena in Auckland, New Zealand.
Ruiz Jr. fought well enough to deserve the win, but he was fighting in Parker’s home country of New Zealand, and he found himself on the receiving end up what a lot of people saw as hometown decision. The scores were 115-113, 115-113 for Parker and 114-114. It had to have been a bitter pill for Ruiz Jr. to swallow him not being given the win over Parker. If the judges had scored the fight in Ruiz Jr’s favor like a lot of boxing fans saw the fight, it could be him looking at getting a huge $12 million payday against Anthony Joshua on March 31st instead of Parker. It’s important for Ruiz Jr. to make sure that he takes the judges out of the equation when he’s fighting if he wants to avoid being on the receiving end of another questionable decision in the future.
After the loss, Ruiz Jr. stopped fighting instead of getting back into the ring to resume his career. Ruiz could have won at least 2 fights in the time he’s been out of the ring, and he’d be in position for a big money title shot against IBF/WBA heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua. Instead, Ruiz Jr. will be looking to take his first fight since the loss to Parker in facing the 36-year-old Vargas.
Ruiz Jr. is still young at 29, and he can easily work his way into position for a title shot if he stays active. That’s a big if. Ruiz Jr. can’t disappear again like he did after the Parker fight in order to get in position for a title shot. If Joshua wins all the titles at heavyweight, there’s a chance for Ruiz to make some life changing money if he can get ranked high enough for a mandatory shot.
It would be better for Ruiz to become Joshua’s mandatory challenger because he’ll get more money. Joshua has a fight against Parker on March 31, and he’ll be looking to unify against WBC champion Deontay Wilder after that to win the last belt. Once Joshua is done with those 2 fights, Ruiz Jr. will have an opportunity to try and get in position for a title shot.
Vargas turned pro in 2004 after competing in the Olympics that year for the U.S. When he first turned pro, Vargas was viewed as a fighter that had the talent to be a contender in the heavyweight division. Things looked good for Vargas until he was beaten by Kevin Johnson by a 6th round knockout in May 2009. Vargas quickly accumulated knockout losses to Andrzej Wawrzyk, Jason Bergman and Dominic Breazeale. After Vargas’ 3rd round knockout loss to Breazeale in 2014, he retired for 3 years.
Vargas started his comeback in April 2017, and he’s won 2 consecutive fights in beating Tommy Washington Jr. and Galen Brown. Vargas will be the opponent against Ruiz Jr. on March 10th, and its possible he’ll lose to him.
It’s going to be important for Ruiz Jr. to have his weight within a reasonable limit for him to beat Vargas. Ruiz Jr. tends to be on the heavy side at times. He’s a much better fighter when he’s in the low 250s than when he balloons up like he did when he weighed 267 lbs. for his December 2014 fight against Sergey Liakhovich. Ruiz Jr. won that fight by a 10 round unanimous decision, but it was closer than the scores turned in by the judges. Hopefully for Ruiz’s sake he’s had enough time to train for the fight because it’s important for him to be in shape after such a long layoff.