By Sean Jones: The father for former IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Andy Ruiz Jr is interested in matching him against 39-year-old former two-time world title challenger Chris Arreola (38-6-1, 33 KO) in November.
Fans are already calling Ruiz, 31, a one-hit-wonder, and comparing him to Buster Douglas. Fighting Arreola isn’t going to solve Ruiz’s problems. If anything, it could make things worse for him if he loses that fight.
Arreola might be the wrong style match-up for Ruiz, as he’s got a good chin, and he’s capable of throwing a lot of punches. Ruiz can’t match Arreola’s punch output without gassing out; If he fades against Arreola, he’ll make him miserable with all the shots he’ll throw.
If Ruiz can’t get Arreola to agree to fight him, then he needs one of these heavyweights:
- Michael Hunter
- Junior Fa
- Agit Kabayel
- Charles Martin
- Tom Schwarz
- Otto Wallin
- Fujimoto Kyotaro
ESPN tried to get a whole of Ruiz for an interview, but they failed. It’s unknown what’s going on with Ruiz. We’re seeing him posing mini-workout clips on his Instagram in front of his house, but that’s it.
If Ruiz Jr. does choose to fight in November against Arreola or whoever, he’s going to need to start treating camp soon. Ruiz has got five months before November, and he still has a lot of weight to lose.
It’s a fight that had been talked about already, but it looks like Team Ruiz serious about it. A more doable fight for Ruiz Jr. would be against 41-year-old Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz, who would likely jump at the chance to fight him. However, that’s not a guy that Ruiz Jr. will want to fight straightaway with him coming off of a loss to Anthony Joshua last December.
Ortiz takes his training seriously, and he would create a lot of problems for Ruiz if he came into the fight with him at an obese 283 pounds.
Arreola supposedly retired following his 12 round unanimous decision loss to Adam Kownacki last August. It was an excellent performance by Arreola, who threw an incredible 1,125 punches in a losing effort.
You can argue that Arreola took something out of Kownacki, as the Polish fighter was knocked out by Robert Helenius in his next fight last March.
With the many millions that Ruiz Jr. made off his two fights with Joshua, some believe that he’s lost his motivation to train hard. He didn’t have the motivation to train hard for the rematch with Joshua.
Some believe that Ruiz’s decision to switch trainers from Manny Robles to the well known Eddy Reynoso is a way for him to have more pressure to train hard. If Ruiz can’t motivate himself, then Reynoso might be able to force him to. I doubt it, but Ruiz Jr. is desperate at this point.