By Dan Ambrose: Andy Ruiz Jr. says he expects to be fighting former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder in the future, and he believes he’ll beat him.
Ruiz, 32, didn’t look good in his last fight against 40-year-old Chris Arreola on May 1st. Andy won the contest by a 12 round unanimous decision, but Arreola dropped him in the second round, and his punch resistance didn’t look good.
The weight that Ruiz has taken off while working out with new coach Eddy Reynoso hasn’t helped him. If Arreola could drop Ruiz, there’s an excellent chance Wilder can do it too and keep him down.
The former IBF/WBA/WBO champion Ruiz (34-2, 22 KOs) says it would be an “amazing fight” to face Wilder (42-2-1, 41 KOs), and he wants it to happen.
Wilder is coming off his second consecutive knockout loss to WBC champion Tyson Fury, and it’s not likely that his management will be interested in matching him against a puncher like Ruiz right now. It depends, though.
If #1 WBC Wilder wants a fast world title shot, the best way to achieve that is by beating #2 WBC in a title eliminator with the World Boxing Council.
That would be the most logical move for Wilder because it’s unlikely that he will be given a title shot against any of the champions in the division anytime soon due to his back-to-back knockout losses to Fury in his last two fights.
“I thought that was an awesome fight. They were going back and forth, and I didn’t know who was going to win,” said Andy Ruiz Jr. to the Last Stand Podcast with Brian Custer on the Tyson Fury vs. Deontay Wilder 3 trilogy match last October.
“Deontay, he has the heart of a lion. He doesn’t want to give up, and he kept coming. He kept getting up, falling down, and getting up. It wasn’t an amazing fight. Hats off to Tyson Fury. He did his thing,” said Ruiz.
If Wilder hadn’t bulked up needlessly to 238 lbs and seemingly ignored his cardio, he might have won the fight.
When Wilder was fresh in the first two rounds, he was dangerous for Fury. Even when Wilder gassed out after the third, he still dropped Fury twice in the fourth.
“I agree with that,” said Ruiz when asked if Fury is the best heavyweight in the world right now.
You can’t say Fury is the best heavyweight in the world until he proves himself against the winner of the Anthony Joshua vs. Oleksandr Usyk rematch. If Fury can beat the winner of that fight, you can argue he’s #1 in the division.
Even after beating the Joshua-Usyk 2 winner, Fury will still need to best these guys to be the true #1 in the division:
- Joe Joyce
- Daniel Dubois
- Frank Sanchez
- Tony Yoka
- Arslanbek Makhmudov
- Filip Hrgovic
- Robert Helenius
“Yes, I do, and I think that would be an amazing fight,” said Ruiz when asked if he sees a contest between him and Wilder taking place in the future, me against Deontay Wilder.
“We’re both part of the same team, and it’s all business. I wouldn’t mind getting in the ring with him, and I feel I could beat him. We got to get it on,” said Ruiz of a fight against Deontay.
It’ll be interesting to see if Wilder does choose to fight Ruiz anytime soon because it’s the best route for him to take if he wants a fast title shot.
If Wilder chooses to take easy confidence builder level fights for the next two or three years, it could take a long time for him to get another title shot. Time isn’t something that the 36-year-old Wilder has right now, and he’s getting old.