By Dan Ambrose: Deontay Wilder’s trainer Malik Scott says they’ve sent an offer to former unified heavyweight champion Andy Ruiz Jr for a fight. Given the kind of money that the 33-year-old reportedly was asking for to fight WBC champion Tyson Fury, a cool $20 million, I’d say the chances of Deontay fighting him are slim & none.
Malik says the “ball is in your court” to the former three-belt champ Ruiz (35-2, 22 KOs), who hadn’t fought since last September when he labored to punishing hard-fought twelve-round unanimous decision over ‘King Kong’ Ortiz.
Malik says they’ve sent an offer, but he isn’t saying the amount, and it’s unlikely to be accepted. It plays well in the media that Wilder is supposedly offering Ruiz a fight. Unless it’s the big money that the inactive Ruiz is looking for, Deontay is wasting his time.
“đź’ŁTIMES UP: We are doing our part, and we sent you a helluva offer.đź’° Ah, @andy_destroyer13, The ball is in your court now; let’s get it signed and sealed. ✍️⏳#signthef***ingcontract #Timesup,” said Dontay Wilder’s trainer Malik Scott on Instagram.
Although Ruiz is no longer a world champion after losing his three straps to Anthony Joshua in December 2019, he still expects to be paid like one, wanting BIG cash for his increasingly rare fights. Ruiz has only fought twice in the last four years since 2019.
That’s one fight every two years, and that’s obviously not good, but it sometimes happens after a fighter makes a killing with a massive payday or two.
Ambition goes out the window, and they rarely fight after that, and when they do, they expect the same big bucks that they got in the past. Ruiz is a prime example of that.
Still, it could be just an attention-getting move to keep the former WBC heavyweight champion in the news and not forgotten. At the same time, he sits & waits for his massive payday fight against Anthony Joshua in December.
After making $10M for his two fights with Anthony Joshua in 2019 and decent money for his pay-per-view fights on Fox against 40-year-old Chris Arreola and 43-year-old Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz in the last two years, Ruiz doesn’t come cheap.
Wilder (43-2-1, 42 KOs) would be crazy to take on the combination puncher Ruiz because this is too dangerous of a warm-up fight for his massive money fight against Anthony Joshua in December in Saudi Arabia.
It’s fair to say that Ruiz will reject the offer from Wilder and sit out of the ring this year without fighting. Ruiz will likely wait until 2024 before he returns to the ring, which will be another that he’s been inactive.
The problem with Ruiz rarely fighting is that it makes it more problematic for him to try and get the money he’s asking for. If he would just stay busy with his career like hungry fighters, he’d have a better shot at getting the kind of dough that he wants.
