Meet Andy Ruiz Jr. in person, talk to him long enough, and you will find the former heavyweight world champion is highly likable. He is the kind of guy you can belly up with at the bar and rub elbows together as you gulp down beers. He is easy to root for, the everyman.
Underneath that jovial, happy-go-lucky approachable veneer, however, sits the kid who was mocked, told he was no good; the kid who was squeezed through the ropes at the age of 6 and forced to fight kids twice his age because he was so much larger than his classmates.
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The problem was that “fat boy” was beating them. In the schoolyard and the classroom, the kid they called “flabby” was gradually building a steely resolve. Boxing was his way to vent. It built a fortress of confidence that’d eventually endure the screams of thousands of British fans — “Who are ya? You fat bastard; who are ya? You fat bastard; who are ya? You fat bastard!” — on June 1, 2019, at Madison Square Garden, when Ruiz stood opposite of his direct counterpart, Anthony Joshua, the heavyweight champion sculpted like a Greek Adonis with muscles on his ear lobes and maybe a pinch of fat on his big toe.
The “fat boy” beat him, too, splattering Joshua to wrest away the WBA, IBF and WBO heavyweight world championship belts in the seventh round, spoiling Joshua’s American debut — and making history as boxing’s first Mexican heavyweight world champion.
Andy Ruiz Jr. shocked the world in his first fight against Anthony Joshua.
(Al Bello via Getty Images)
Then, over the next six years, Ruiz’s confidence — that innate belief he had in himself — began to drift and eventually fade away.
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On Friday night, Ruiz (35-2-1, 22 KOs), now 36, has a chance to begin getting back what he lost, when he takes on another daunting task in 6-foot-7 Polish giant Damian Knyba (17-1, 11 KOs) at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, live on DAZN and TNT Sports.
Ruiz is fighting for his career relevance, as is Knyba, who is coming off a third-round stoppage loss to recently minted WBC heavyweight champion Agit Kabayel in January.
Since beating Joshua seven years ago, Ruiz has gone through numerous incarnations in and out of the ring. He says beating Joshua was the best thing that ever happened to him — and the worst. It set him atop of the boxing world, and it set him apart from who he is. Ruiz openly admits that there have been times, many times, when he was his worst enemy. There was drinking and carousing. There was a complete loss of discipline from the punching machine he was that night at MSG, to the bloated 283-pound version that showed up for the Joshua rematch in Saudi Arabia in December 2019.
Since the Joshua rematch, which he lost in a rout, Ruiz has weighed in at an almost svelte 256 pounds for his victory over Chris Arreola in 2021, then 268.5 pounds for his unanimous decision over Luis Ortiz in 2022, only to blow back up again to 274.5 for his majority draw against Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller in August 2024. Friday’s return will be only the fourth time Ruiz has fought since the night he beat Joshua at MSG.
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“The Destroyer” found out what the perils of success can do — either embrace it and take it over, or let success take you over.
Ruiz did not fare so well in the second Joshua fight.
(picture alliance via Getty Images)
“I really didn’t know how to handle it,” Ruiz admitted to Uncrowned. “I did a lot of stupid things, like going to one of my favorite taco joints [Albert’s Taco Shop, in Pico Rivera, California] at 1 in the morning, when I should have been sleeping and preparing in training camp. When I beat Joshua, I did something no one expected me to do. Then I lost it, and the only one to really blame is myself.
“I shocked the world. I knew what it took to reach that point, and I forgot what got me there. But there are some things that I will always remember [about the first Joshua fight]. When I came in, everyone was booing me. When I left, they were cheering me on. I let my fans down after that. I cheated myself because I wasn’t at my best. Everyone will be cheering me again. You’ll see. Everyone will see.”
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In July, Ruiz signed a promotional contract with Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn. He is back with trainer Manny Robles, who trained Ruiz for Joshua. After losing the rematch to Joshua, Ruiz proceeded to blame everyone but himself for the setback. He bounced to renowned trainer Eddy Reynoso for the Arreola fight, then bounced Alfredo Osuna for the Ortiz fight, and, still unsatisfied, he took a major chance and trained himself for Miller.
After seeing what happened there, he thought about going back to someone that got the best out of him: Robles.
The fighter Robles saw that June night in 2019 — and the fighter the boxing world saw that June night in 2019 — seems to be back.
“He is, because Andy realizes this is the most important fight of his career,” Robles said. “Andy had to do a lot of growing up. He did have to realize he had to be fixed. He is a different man. He is more of a man now. He is a family man. He is a more responsible man. Winning the heavyweight title was the best thing that happened to him, and it was also the worst. Andy has said it a million times.
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“Every fight moving forward will be the biggest fight of his career. It is make-it-or-break-it. He is fighting for his life. This is more than just a boxing match to him.”
From 2021 to 2024, Ruiz also underwent surgery on his right knee, possibly caused by the added weight he was carrying, and then rotator cuff surgery in November 2023, possibly caused by not training the way he should have. He hurt his right hand in the Miller fight, though swears now he is in the best physical and mental shape he’s been in his career.
“I was broken, but I didn’t realize I was broken, and when I finally did, it made me reborn,” Ruiz said. “You can’t go around thinking you have all of the answers and believing the lifestyle you lead will make successful in boxing. I had to learn the hard way, a lot of trial-and-error, a lot more errors than trials.
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“I don’t know how many more chances I have left. But I can say I know that I’m better than these [contending] heavyweights. I want my belts belt, and I plan on getting them back. I had go through a lot of dark places to see the light. I wasn’t doing anything stupid, but I will say I was doing stupid things a fighter shouldn’t do. Right now, this is the strongest mentally and physically I have ever been. I’m hungrier now, not for tacos.”
He owes someone, too, he feels.
“I took a lot of s*** as a kid,” he said. “There are some things you never forget. My whole life, I have had people doubt. Some of that, recently, I asked for. But hey, I’m ‘down’ to around 256, 257. I want six pack abs. I can laugh about my weight. But I can still hear it, ‘Hey, fat boy.’ I can still see those kids laughing at me. They weren’t laughing long after I beat their ass. Knyba probably looks at me the same way. He’s probably thinking, ‘How is this fat bastard going to beat me?’ It’s probably what Joshua thought, and look what happened to him the first time.
“I have another chance to do something in boxing. I’m not blowing it this time. You can say it: this fight is for my boxing life.”
He owes it to the “fat boy.”
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