By Aragon Garcia: It’s been a little over a month since Andy Ruiz Jr. lost his IBF, WBA and WBO heavyweight titles in a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision defeat to British fighter Anthony Joshua on December 7 in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia. Ruiz came up short on the score cards by the scores 118-110, 119-109, 118-110.
While there are a lot of boxing fans that question whether the talented Imperial, California native can come back from the loss, the ‘Golden Boy’ Oscar De La Hoya believes in him. De La Hoya says Ruiz Jr. (33-2, 20 KOs) isn’t a quitter, and he’ll be back. Oscar says he was shocked at Ruiz coming weighing in the 280s, but he still believes he can come back from the loss. De La Hoya has a reported net worth of $200 million, but he’s had many years to get used to being wealthy.
De La Hoya: There’s NO quit in Andy Ruiz Jr.
“Oh, absolutely. Ruiz is a fighter, and there’s no quit in him,” said Oscar De La Hoya to Fighthype on whether Andy Ruiz can come back. “He admitted it that he wasn’t in shape [for the Joshua rematch].
“When he came in at 280, I was surprised, and in shock. I expected that kind of fight, and I expected Joshua to keep him at bay, to use his distance and use his smarts,” said De La Hoya about Joshua. “That’s exactly what he did, and he proved that he’s one of the best in the division, if not the best, in the heavyweight rankings,” said De La Hoya.
Ruiz Jr. made a lot of money from his fights in 2019, and he’s obviously doing all the things that anyone would want to do. From the two fights with Joshua, Ruiz’s net worth is an estimated $10 million, according to Celebritynetworth. That’s a lot of money for anyone, and it might take Andy a while to get used to being rich and famous.
Ruiz is going through an adjustment period. De La Hoya dealt with the same thing, but he was making money as soon as he turned professional after winning an Olympic gold medal in 1992.
Ruiz Jr. was 15 lbs over his optimal weight
Andy needed to be from 255-268 lbs for the rematch with Joshua, but he instead focused on bulking up because he wanted to use his strength to win. It was a gamble, since it was obvious Joshua was going to run for 12 rounds. Whatever faith Joshua had in his chin, it was gone after his loss to Ruiz last June.
It’s very likely that from this point forward, Joshua will spend the remainder of his career as a mover and clincher. In other words, Joshua has metamorphosed into Wladimir Klitschko. If you liked watching Wladimir fight, then you’ll lover Joshua’s new fighting style. But if you’re into watching fights that are entertaining, then you might not be too happy with the way Joshua fights now.
The problem with Joshua becoming the next Wladimir is that the talented heavyweights an assembled a blueprint on how to beat him cutting off the ring, and using pressure. Once the blueprint was created by Ross Puritty, other heavyweights followed it to the letter to defeat Klitschko. It’s only a matter of time before someone sits down and watches some of Wladimir’s old fights, and realizes how easy it is to beat his style.
It wasn’t a great performance, but he showed flashes of the fighter that stopped Joshua in the 7th round last June. Even with all the running that Joshua did in the rematch, Ruiz likely could have easily cut off the ring on him, and landed well if he’d been a little lighter. Ruiz was carrying a little too much weight for him to get to Joshua while he was on the run.
Andy Ruiz’s trainer not sure if he’ll stay with him
“I don’t know. That’s for Andy to decide,” said Ruiz’s trainer Manny Robles to skysports.com, when asked if the two will continue to work together. “We’ll find out in the near future. At some point, we will speak. If and when he’s ready to come back to the gym, that’s when my job begins. My job is not to call him every day. He’s a man, not a kid,” said Robles on Ruiz Jr.
Robles seems to be forgetting how drastically Ruiz’s life has changed in the last six months. He’s going by the way that things used to be in the past, but everything is different now. Ruiz is super RICH, and he needs time to enjoy the fruits of one’s labor.
Ruiz, 30, is obviously taking it easy after his hard right, and the grueling training camp he had. What fans don’t realize is Ruiz was busy in 2019, three fights without an adequate rest break. There aren’t too many top level heavyweights that fight 3 times in a year, especially when they fight a big guy like Joshua twice.
This is little Ferrari trinket Ruiz Jr. has purchased with his hard-earned money from his 2 fights against Joshua. It looks really nice.
