By Dan Ambrose: Andy Ruiz Jr says he’s game to challenge WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury on December 3rd.
Fury’s dad, John Fury, mentioned former unified heavyweight champion Ruiz (35-2, 22 KOs) as one of the three options to replace Anthony Joshua for a fight against Tyson in December.
Fury is frustrated with the slow progress for the contract situation with Joshua for the December 3rd fight. If Fury is going to give up on the Joshua fight, Ruiz would be an ideal backup option. He’s certainly a far better choice than Manuel Charr, who would be an awful option.
However, Ruiz wouldn’t be the WBC mandatory for Fury, meaning it would be a voluntary defense. Ruiz obviously wouldn’t be agreeable to fighting Fury in a voluntary defense unless the split was significant.
Ruiz would like to take on Fury, as that’s what he’s been building for since his victory over Chris Arreola last year. He recently defeated 43-year-old Luis Ortiz by a 12 round unanimous decision on September 4th, and he’s one win away from becoming the mandatory for Fury’s WBC title.
“Let’s go. This would be an amazing fight for boxing @tysonfury,” said Andy Ruiz Jr on social media about him and Tyson Fury battling on December 3rd.
Ruiz didn’t take a lot of damage in his victory over ‘King Kong’ Ortiz last September. Although Ruiz did barely win the fight, he got through without getting too beaten up by Ortiz.
The other backup options mentioned by John Fury are Filip Hrgovic and Luis Ortiz. It’s unclear how serious Fury is about fighting any of those guys for his December 3rd.
If the whole idea is for Fury to get an opponent for as little money as possible, he’ll likely focus on #19 WBC Manuel Charr because he’s not ranked as high as Hrgovic, Ruiz, or Ortiz, and he can probably get him at a nice price.
For Fury, it’s also about getting an easy win without taking physical damage because he’s got a tough fight on his hands against Oleksandr Usyk in February or March.
“It’s not going to happen this year; I don’t think. No, it’s very doubtful,” said John Fury to the Mailsport about a fight between Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury.
“We’re looking at other people. Andy Ruiz, Luis Ortiz, and Filip Hrgovic, or whoever wants to fight,” said John Fury.
