Andy Ruiz Jr will return to the ring this weekend around the same weight he was when he stopped Anthony Joshua to become heavyweight world champion.
The American has fought just once since Joshua reclaimed the belts in their rematch in late 2019, and will take on Luis Ortiz on Saturday night in Los Angeles. Ruiz Jr tipped the scales at 268lb for the first Joshua fight, but ballooned to 283lb for their rematch six months later after failing to properly prepare.
Just months after losing to Joshua and leaving trainer Manny Robles to join Eddy Reynoso and Canelo Alvarez's team, Ruiz's ring return hopes were dashed when the coronavirus shut down boxing in 2020. He made a brief return against Chris Arreola last year after losing a massive 27lb, although he struggled to victory and was even dropped.
Now he has returned to the weight that gained him his biggest wins, telling FightHype that he is now in the 260-270 range. He was 262lb just a few weeks prior to facing Joshua when he earned his world title shot by beating Alexander Dimitrenko, and insists he is done with major diets that will cause him to lose too much weight.
“I’ve been doing everything that I’ve been supposed to do," he explained. "I don’t want to say a lot of stuff but yesterday we ate Cane’s [a popular American brand of fried chicken] - I’m not in a big diet, you know? I’ve been eating good. The main thing and the most important thing is just putting the hard work inside of the gym.
"So weight – it goes off and it comes back on whenever it does. We’re just focused on boxing. 260lb, I’m in the 60s. So I weigh exactly what [I did] when I fought Anthony Joshua. But having more ability, you know, moving around. I feel good.”
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Ruiz's win over Joshua ranked as one of boxing's biggest upsets and landed him among the elite heavyweights in the world. But he admits the newfound fame and financial success got to his head and his preparations for their massive money rematch in Saudi Arabia suffered, meaning Joshua reclaimed the belts.
Since then, Joshua defended his titles once against mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev before taking on Oleksandr Usyk, the legendary former undisputed cruiserweight champion. He lost his belts to the Ukrainian in London last September before instantly rematching him in Saudi Arabia, where he improved to a split decision, but still left without the gold.
Ruiz has insisted he wants to face Joshua in a trilogy bout given that their series is currently poised at 1-1. However, his promoters PBC have a very poor working relationship with Joshua's Matchroom Boxing due to to promoter Eddie Hearn's abrasive style, so making that bout with no belts on the line could prove difficult.
