Andy Ruiz Jr has been working with Canelo Alvarez this week, using movement and learning how to avoid getting hit cleanly with shots.
Andy (33-2, 22 KOs) wants to earn a trilogy match with Anthony Joshua, but he’s perhaps three to four fights away from putting himself in position for that fight. If Canelo can help Ruiz with his head and upper body movement, he’ll hard to be.
Other than Tyson Fury, no one in the heavyweight division has the head and upper body movement like Canelo.
Ruiz, 31, is learning all he can from Alvarez to make his long-awaited return to the ring, and there are many question marks whether he can recapture his IBF, WBA, and WBO heavyweight titles.
Ruiz has lost a lot of weight working alongside Canelo with trainer Eddy Reynoso, and he looks like an entirely different fighter from the one that fought against Anthony Joshua in December 2019 in Saudi Arabia.
Ruiz weighed 283 lbs for that fight and was too slow and heavy to beat Joshua.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjGGifdRGVI
In looking at how thin Ruiz is now, you have to wonder whether he’s lost punching power and stamina with all the weight that he’s lost.
There aren’t too many fighters that aren’t negatively impacted when they lost 60+ pounds the way Ruiz has. Anyone that has lost that kind of weight knows how weak they feel afterward.
It’ll be surprising if Ruiz isn’t weaker after the drop in weight, and he might be vulnerable from this point until he gains back some of the weight.
The superstar Canelo (55-1-2, 37 KOs) is teaching former IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Ruiz (33-2, 22 KOs) to roll with the punches while he prepares for his fight against Chris Arreola on May 1st.
Ruiz vs. Arreola will be battling in a 12-round fight in the main event on Fox Sports PBC pay-per-view at the Dignity Health Sports Park, Carson, California.
If Ruiz wins, he’s expected to take a riskier fight, possibly against Deontay Wilder or Luis Ortiz. He’s got to take a big step up after the Arreola match f he wants to get a shot at the winner of the second fight between Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury.
Ruiz won’t convince anyone that he’s improved if he faces another older lion after his May 1st battle against 40-year-old Arreola (38-6-1, 33 KOs).
Hopefully, Canelo can show Ruiz Jr enough for him to breeze through the Arreola fight and win his next two matches while he waits for the smoke to clear from the Joshua-Fury fights.
Dillian Whyte is a big name that would help Ruiz get his badly wanted trilogy match with Joshua (24-1, 22 KOs). Beating Whyte would put Ruiz in the immediate position to challenge the winner of the Joshua-Fury second fight.