By Sean Jones: Eddie Hearn says he likes the idea of Andy Ruiz Jr facing Deontay Wilder next. It would be the ideal fight to take between two former heavyweight champions trying to come back from devastating losses.
Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs) is one of the names that has been mentioned as a possible opponent for Ruiz’s next fight. If Ruiz wants a sure thing world title shot as fast as possible, fighting Wilder is the best way to go.
The other name is Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz. Still, Ruiz’s management at Premier Boxing Champions may go in an entirely different direction by matching him against Michael Hunter, Agit Kabayel, or Charles Martin.
If Ruiz’s management goes in the direction of one of those heavyweights, it would be an admission that they’re not confident that he can beat Wilder or Ortiz.
While former IBF/WBA/WBO champion Ruiz Jr (34-2, 22 KOs) got back to his winning ways with a 12 round unanimous decision win over Chris Arreola on May 1st, it wasn’t the impressive victory that he needed.
The 40-year-old former two-time world title challenger Arreola (38-7-1, 33 KOs) dropped Ruiz in the second round and hurt him again in the third. Ruiz adapted well and dominated the remainder of the fight to win a one-sided decision.
Still, it wasn’t the impressive victory that the 31-year-old Ruiz needed for him to get the trilogy match with Anthony Joshua that he’s been calling for.
“I’d love to see him fight Deontay Wilder; I think that’s a tremendous fight, that would be great,” said Eddie Hearn to the DAZN Boxing Show on his wish to see Andy Ruiz Jr take on Deontay.
It’s doubtful that Ruiz will fight with Wilder next because he wasn’t impressive enough against Arreola. Ruiz still needs more time to adjust to his 60 lb weight loss in going from 313 to 257 lbs.
The weight is one big issue that Ruiz needs to adjust to, and his new trainer Eddy Reynoso is another. Ruiz still doesn’t seem comfortable with the fighting style that Reynoso has for him.
In the Arreola fight, it looked like Ruiz was trying to fight like Canelo Alvarez, and that made it much harder for him.
Instead of attacking the 40-year-old Arreola with combinations like he would have done in the old days, he focused on defense and throwing counter shots.
When Ruiz was knocked down by Arreola in the second round, it was the result of him mimicking Canelo’s stance when he was coming in low. That style works for Canelo, but it didn’t work for Ruiz, who was nailed by a chopping right hand from Arreola.
“I saw bits of pieces; I saw the knockdown. I also saw the fights in the crowd; wow,” said Hearn about the Ruiz vs. Arreola fight. “Andy Ruiz is a great fighter; he’s been out a long time, he’s also lost a lot of weight.
“I think this is going to take him a long time to get used to that,” said Hearn about Ruiz’s weight loss.
“It was just good to see him back in the ring. First, fight under Eddy Reynoso,” said Hearn.
Hopefully, by the time Ruiz fights again in the summer, he’ll be back to normal, feeling strong and not dealing with weight drain issues.
It’s important that Ruiz not let himself go physically again by overeating, partying, and getting fat.
Ruiz celebrated too much after his upset win over Anthony Joshua in June 2019. He also let himself go after his loss to Joshua in the same year.
With the kind of weight that Ruiz can put on, he can’t afford to be blowing up to over 300 pounds at this stage in his career because it takes too long for him to lose the weight.