By Dan Ambrose: Andy Ruiz Jr took to social media recently to ask his boxing fans who they feel would win in a fight between him and WBC interim heavyweight champion Dillian Whyte.
For Ruiz to ask his fans their views on Whyte, it indicates that he’s considering facing him. That’s good news because that would be a good matchup. Unfortunately, Whyte is scheduled to face former WBA heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin on August 22.
If Dillian wins that contest, he might choose to sit back and wait for his mandated title shot against WBC champion Tyson Fury. The World Boxing Council has told Whyte that he’ll be fighting for the WBC title by February of next year.
But if Whyte wants to be bold and slip in one more fight before next February, then he and Ruiz would be an excellent match for November or December.
It would be cutting it close for Whyte to take a fight that late in the year, given that he wouldn’t have a lot of time to recover before he’s due his title shot next February.
Is Ruiz interested in Whyte battle?
What we do know is an in-shape Ruiz Jr could be a disaster for Whyte, who has problems when dealing with fighters that throw flurries. Joseph Parker knocked Whyte down in their fight in 2018, Dereck Chisora arguably beat him in their first match in 2016.
Joshua worked Whyte over with combinations and left him in a heap on the canvas in the seventh round in their bout in 2015.
Who you got? Retweet and let me know ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/b00lkgpe95
— AndyRuizjr (@Andy_destroyer1) July 1, 2020
Whyte fired back at Ruiz Jr with this comment after seeing his above post:
“Go eat cakes man when we made u offers to fight you wasn’t serious now u spend half ya money and sweets you looking for a payout see you later fat guy,” said Dillian.
The former IBF/WBA/WBO champion Ruiz (33-2, 22 KOs) has a lot of bad blood with Whyte (27-1, 18 KOs) over some of the comments the British fighter has made about him in the media.
Whyte, 32, was hoping to fight Ruiz not long ago, and he had his promoter Eddie Hearn make an offer to him. Although Whyte said the proposal was $5 million, it’s rumored to have been $4 million.
Ruiz chose not to accept the offer, which in hindsight, might have been a mistake. But perhaps Ruiz didn’t feel that he was ready to take on a tough fight with Whyte following his defeat to Anthony Joshua last December.
Whyte would need to box Ruiz
The Ruiz that we saw in the first fight with Joshua in June of 2018 would have an excellent chance of beating Whyte. Most people would agree that Whyte would need to take a page out of Joshua’s new playbook for him to beat Ruiz.
Dillian would need to follow the Joshua blueprint by staying on the outside, jabbing, and tying Ruiz up on the inside. While it’s possible for Whyte to do that at times in a fight against Andy Jr, he would most likely veer off course and go back to his old slugging style.
Whyte has too much pride for him to spoil for 12 continuous rounds against Ruiz the way that Joshua did in Saudi Arabia. It would be a mistake for Whyte to slug with a well-conditioned Ruiz, as he doesn’t possess the hand speed or the ability to throw combinations like him.
With the way the pandemic has cut into the revenue that boxing events bring in due to the absence of crowds, Ruiz missed out on a chance for a nice payday in a winnable fight against Whyte. Boxing fans are split in their opinions on who would win in a battle between Whyte and the 31-year-old Ruiz Jr.