Andy Ruiz Jr will be making his return to the ring on May 1st rather than the original April 24th date against Chris Arreola on PBC pay-per-view. ESPN Deportes reveals that the original date is being pushed back a week.
Placing the Ruiz-Arreola fight on May 1st will help avoid competing with the UFC 261: Usman vs. Masvidal 2 card on April 24th.
The venue for former IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Ruiz’s fight against Arreola (38-6-1, 33 KOs) is expected to be at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California.
Premier Boxing Champions have yet to make an announcement for the location, but they’re expected to soon.
Ruiz (33-2, 22 KOs) will be fighting for the first time in a year and a half since losing his three titles to Anthony Joshua in their rematch in Saudi Arabia on December 7th, 2019.
With a new trainer in Eddy Reynoso, Ruiz, 31, has rededicated himself to the sport of boxing and has lost a lot of weight.
Ruiz wants to put some wins under his belt to get him in position for either a trilogy match with Joshua or a fight against Tyson Fury if he emerges as the winner in his two fights with AJ this year.
Even if Joshua loses to Fury, Ruiz still has unfinished business with him, and he wants that trilogy fight to avenge his loss in Saudi.
Ruiz has transformed his physique, and he’s looking like an entirely different fighter than the one that twice fought Joshua.
Will Andy’s new look help him or hurt him? That’s a question that some fans have, as Ruiz may lose punching power with him having lost so much weight.
The weight loss and the new trainer for Ruiz could put him back on top again, and it’s going to be interesting to see how well he performs when he battles the former two-time heavyweight world title challenger Arreola.
Boxing fans have been critical of the idea of paying to watch Ruiz vs. Arreola fight on pay-per-view, considering that they don’t see this as being worthy of PPV.
Unfortunately, going the PPV route is likely the only way this fight could have been made at this time.
It’s for boxing fans to have the chance to see Ruiz rather than missing out with him sitting on the shelf waiting for a massive fight against Joshua, Fury, or one of the other top heavyweights.
Ruiz has become a minor star after his two fights with Joshua, and he’s not going to want to go back to where he was before those two fights.
If Ruiz beats the 40-year-old Arreola on May 1st, he would like to take on former WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder.
That would be a fight that boxing fans would have no issues paying to see between these two former world champions. We’ll have to see if Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs) shows interest in facing Ruiz in the coming months.
Potential undercard fights for the Ruiz vs. Arreola card:
Sebastian ‘Towering Inferno’ Fundora vs. Jorge Cota, Omar Figueroa vs. Abel Ramos, and Jesús Ramos vs. Javier Molina.