By Jeff Aronow: Andy Ruiz Jr. (34-2, 22 KOs) is coming off successful right knee surgery performed on Tuesday in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, but he still hopes to make a quick recovery to fight in December. We’ll soon see if Ruiz Jr. can come back that quickly from the surgery.
Ruiz’s dad, Andy Ruiz Sr., told ESPN Knockout that he was informed by his doctor and physical trainer that he would be able to fight in December.
Of course, that’s an ideal scenario that assumes that Ruiz’s rehab will run smoothly without a hitch, and he won’t retear it. Coming back from knee surgery is frequently difficult for boxers, and it’s possible that Ruiz Jr might not see action until 2022.
If Ruiz does make it back this year, it would be smart for him to fight a low-risk opponent that doesn’t possess the power to drop him.
This is an injury that the former IBF, WBA & WBO heavyweight champion Ruiz Jr has lived with for the last three years. Somehow, he’s been able to fight with the injury and still generate power on his shots.
In Ruiz’s last fight against Chris Arreola on May 1st, his legs were buckled, and he was dropped hard in the second round. That probably didn’t help his injured right knee having that happen.
“He underwent surgery on his right knee; he had been struggling with that knee for about three years,” Andy Ruiz Sr. said to ESPN Knockout.
“He could not run very much, he could not do certain movements, he used gel to mitigate the pain, but it was not enough, and he made the decision to get the procedure done, which was an arthroscopy.
“It was done by the same doctor who operated on Canelo [Alvarez], Pedro Lomeli Jaime.”
Ruiz Jr had been planning on fighting the 6’5″ former IBF heavyweight champion Charles Martin in October, but he opted to take the surgery instead.
That was a good idea on Ruiz’s part not to take that fight, as Martin has some good pop in his punches, and he might have given him problems if he wasn’t 100%.
Ruiz Jr. lost his titles to Anthony Joshua in December 2019, getting beaten by a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision.
Not long after the fight, Ruiz chose to cut loose his trainer Manny Robles and switch to Eddy Reynoso in hopes that he brings him back to world champion again. That hasn’t happened. Ruiz struggled to beat 40-year-old Chris Arreola last May and wound getting decked in the second.
If anything, Ruiz Jr. looked worse in his first fight with Reynoso. In fairness to Reynoso, the combination of Ruiz’s 57-lb weight loss and his new focus on defense made the Arreola fight harder than it should have been.
“They gave us hope that he would come back in December,” Ruiz Sr. said. “The physical trainer and the doctor told us that if everything goes well as it is now, then there is that possibility, but we will see when the time comes. For now we are happy that the surgery went well.”
Ruiz Jr. badly wants a trilogy fight with Anthony Joshua after splitting a pair with him in 2019, but for that to happen, he’s got to be more active, and he also needs to start fighting top 10 contenders.
After Ruiz’s loss to Joshua in December 2019, he stayed out of the ring for 17 months before finally fighting last May against Arreola. Now with Ruiz’s knee surgery, who knows how long it will be before he fights again.
The quickest way for Ruiz Jr to get another fight with Joshua would be to face WBC interim heavyweight champion Dillian Whyte. He’s been calling Ruiz Jr out for over a year now, and there’s a lot of money to be made for him if he were to accept that fight.
A win over Whyte would put Ruiz Jr in an excellent position to get the trilogy match against Joshua that he’s been asking for.