By Craig Daly: The WBC has canceled their order for Deontay Wilder & Andy Ruiz to meet in a final eliminator due to the fight not being put together.
#1 Wilder and #3 Anthony Joshua (26-3, 23 KOs) are in negotiations for a mega-fight in January in Saudi Arabia. There’s already a tremendous amount of fan interest in the Joshua-Wilder fight in the boxing world, despite it still being in the negotiation stage.
It’s believed by some that the WBC will put their interim title at stake for the Joshua vs. Wilder contest, with the winner in a position to challenge champion Tyson Fury.
WBC ordered the Wilder vs. Ruiz fight to determine the mandatory challenger for heavyweight champion Tyson Fury.
Although Wilder (43-2-1, 42 KOs) attempted to put together a fight with the former unified champion Ruiz, the negotiations never got off the ground, partly due to Andy’s insistence on a 50-50 split.
Besides, there wasn’t much fan interest in a Wilder-Ruiz fight, mostly because Ruiz has done precious little since losing his unified heavyweight championship to Joshua in their rematch in December 2019. Andy has let his career go down the drain after making $10 million from his two fights with AJ.
The World Boxing Council will rule at their next convention in November to determine a new title eliminator. The WBC will likely order #2 Ruiz to face #4 Arslanbek Makhmudov.
Given how difficult a fight that would be for Ruiz, he’ll likely decline. The next option would be for the WBC to order Makhmudov to battle #5 Frank Sanchez.
“The WBC Board of Governors has ruled to cancel the order which was issued during the last annual convention calling for a final elimination bout between Deontay Wilder and Andy Ruiz Jr. to determine the mandatory challenger of the division,” per WBC.
“The WBC will evaluate the current situation in the division in order to review the viable options and, if necessary, issue a new ruling during the WBC annual convention to be held in Uzbekistan in November.”
It makes sense for Wilder to have skipped taking the fight with Ruiz because he will make a lot more money fighting Joshua in January in Saudi Arabia.
AJ is reportedly getting $60 million for the fight, and you got to believe Wilder is getting similar money. Many boxing fans believe Wilder will destroy Joshua, who resembles someone suffering from war nerves. Since his rematch with Ruiz, AJ has looked terrified to pull the trigger on his punches.
Ruiz will probably continue fighting once a year, targeting older fighters like he’s been doing while calling out the top guys to face him. What a waste.