By Kenneth Friedman: Andy Ruiz Jr is now working out in swimming pools to build up his conditioning while taking off weight for his next fight. The former IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Ruiz stresses the importance of mixing things up in reducing the strain on his body from the roadwork that he’s doing.
When you over 250+ pounds, it’s hard on the body to run on pavement or even on a treadmill. Ruiz needs to make sure that he doesn’t suffer an injury before he even starts training camp with his new coach Eddy Reynoso. Those two will be meeting up soon once the negotiations are completed for Ruiz’s next fight, which could be against Chris Arreola.
Ruiz, 31, wants another title shot after losing his three belts in his rematch with British heavyweight Anthony Joshua last year in December. Andy needs at the minimum two good wins under his belt before he’ll be considered as an opponent for Joshua in a trilogy match.
Ruiz could be two fights away from a title shot
The plan is for Ruiz (33-2, 22 KOs) to beat the 39-year-old Arreola (38-6-1, 33 KOs) next in September or October, and then face former two-time world title challenge #3 WBA, #3 WBC Luis Ortiz. Ruiz is ranked #4 WBA, #4 WBC, #5 IBF and #5 WBO. If Andy Jr can beat Ortiz, that should put him in a position to face either WBC champion Tyson Fury or Joshua.
Since Fury and Joshua will be unifying the IBF, WBA, WBC, and WBO titles in 2021, Ruiz will target the winner of that fight. He’ll have an excellent shot at fighting one of them by 2022.
It won’t happen next year, though, as Fury and Joshua are booked up with fights. Fury needs to defend his WBC title against mandatory Dillian Whyte in February, and then he can look to face AJ. For Joshua’s part, he has WBO mandatory challenger Oleksandr Usyk he needs to take care of in 2021 along with his unification match against Fury.
Ruiz may need to win three fights before he eventually gets his title shot because he has a long wait ahead of him. If Ruiz fights once in 2020 and twice in 2021, then he’ll have to win three times before he can potentially battle for all four titles in 2022.
Ruiz needs to focus on fighting the best
Ideally, Ruiz should continue to fight the best available opponents until he gets shot because that will increase the amount of interest from boxing fans. The more pay-per-view buys that are generated from Ruiz facing the Joshua-Fury winner, the better it is for him.
Andy has learned his lesson from his defeat to Joshua last December. He didn’t train hard for that fight, and he let Joshua take advantage of him being overweight at 283 lbs. Also, Ruiz Jr looked like he was taken by surprise the amount of movement that Joshua, 29, used in their contest.
He should have been ready for that. It was only apparent that Joshua was going to box Ruiz after information leaked that he was getting tips from former heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko.
We’d seen how Joshua had imitated Wladimir in his win over Joseph Parker in 2018, so it shouldn’t have been a surprise to Ruiz and his former trainer Manny Robles that he would use that style again in their fight.
Is it better for Ruiz to be thin?
There’s some disagreement with boxing fans on how low Ruiz should drop down to in terms of his weight. In the past, Ruiz was at his best when he fought in the low 250s. However, some boxing fans want to see him trim down to the 230s or 240s. That could be a mistake if Ruiz does get that thin.
The lightest weights for Ruiz during his 11-year career:
- 246 – KO 1 Matthew Greer
- 246 3/4 – UD 6 Angel Herrera
- 247 3/4 – UD 8 Joell Godfrey
- 248 1/2 – RTD 4 Ray Austin
Ruiz has had mixed results when his weight was below 250. In some cases, Ruiz obliterated his opponents, but he was also forced to go the distance. The guys that Ruiz went the distance against, he likely would destroy if he were more energetic.