By Dan Ambrose: Fans finally will get a chance to see Andy Ruiz return to the ring on May 1st in a FOX Sports PBC PPV fight against Chris Arreola at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California. The price tag for the card is $49.95, which is low for pay-per-view standards.
Nowadays, many PPV cards are priced in the $70+ region, so that the fans will be getting a relative steal at $49.95. But by no means is this cheap, given that many fans are reeling from the pandemic having done a job on the U.S economy.
Fresh off his loss to Anthony Joshua, Ruiz (33-2, 22 KOs) can ill afford another setback like the one he suffered in December 2019 in his rematch.
There will be cause for concern if Ruiz isn’t able to beat the 40-year-old Arreola with ease on May 1st, and if he loses this fight, it’ll be pure panic.
The way Ruiz looked against AJ, anything is possible, ANYTHING. Arreola will certainly follow the blueprint that Joshua created in how to beat Ruiz, and it’s not beyond the realm of possibilities that he could pull off a minor upset.
You wouldn’t call it a major upset because Ruiz was never a big deal before his shocking upset against an unprepared Joshua in their first fight in June 2019.
If Ruiz loses to Arreola (38-6, 33 KOs), we could see his new trainer Eddy Reynoso quickly ushered out in the same way Manny Robles was after his loss to Joshua.
Ruiz, 31, is kidding himself if he believes that playing musical chairs with his trainers will change anything.
The reason that he lost to Joshua and Joseph Parker in the past is that he doesn’t watch his weight, and he struggles against heavyweight that utilizes movement against him.
Ruiz can’t blame his past trainers, Manny Robles or Abel Sanchez, for him not training hard enough to beat the top guys.
That’s his own fault. Unless Ruiz keeps his weight down and figures out how to deal with fighters that use movement, it doesn’t matter who trains him.
He’ll continue to lose. It will be interesting to see how long Reynoso lasts before Ruiz cuts him loose after he loses again because he’s eventually going to get beaten again at some point.
“I must have lost 40 pounds. After my defeat vs Anthony Joshua, I gained to like 310 lbs. I was depressed, mad at myself because I knew I should have trained.
“I had everything, the belts, but I took that s*** for granted. I’m ready to get my belts back,” said Andy Ruiz on Youtube.
Taking that weight off appears to have aged Ruiz, as he looks older than he was before he trimmed off the 40+ lbs. Sometimes people look younger after losing weight, while others appear to age.
Ruiz is the latter. It took a lot out of him to lose the weight. That happens when you rapidly lose weight the way Ruiz did.
The May 1st Ruiz vs. Arreola card will start at 9:00 p.m. ET on Fox Sports PBC pay-per-view.
In the co-feature bout, former WBC lightweight champion Omar Figueroa Jr (28-1, 19 KOs) will be facing Abel Ramos in a 12 round fight in the chief support bout in welterweight action.
This will be the first fight for the 30-year-old Figueroa in almost two years since his loss to Yordenis Ugas in July 2019. It’s difficult to imagine Figueroa Jr winning this fight against Ramos.
Even if Figueroa were more active with his career, this would still be a hard fight for him and likely too much to deal with. Figuera isn’t a natural 147-pounder, and he’s never looked good in this weight class other than his win over a shot Robert Guerrero in 2017.
Other fights on the May 1st card:
- Sebastián “The Towering Inferno’’ Fundora vs. Jorge “El Demonio’’ Cota
- Jesús Ramos, Jr. vs. Javier “El Intocable” Molina