He also showed a fighter’s mentality by dusting himself off the canvas in the third round and turned things around in dramatic fashion. He will never have chiseled abs or a shredded physique like his fellow boxers, but he does have a natural fighting ability. Talent has never been an issue for Ruiz, who possesses fast hands and fluidity. “I have seen all the comments.”Īndy Ruiz poses for photographs after a heavyweight title boxing match against Anthony Joshua on Saturday, June 1, 2019, in New York. I wanted to prove all the doubters wrong,” he shares. Despite every insulting “crying-laughing” emoji that got posted in response to his and Joshua’s weigh in photo, it was Ruiz who got the last laugh. Legendary boxing promoter Bob Arum even once described Ruiz as a “fat slob.” But the pre-fight gibes only motivated him going into his world title challenge. If there are abs somewhere in his midsection, they are buried deeper than fossil fuels on the ocean floor. (This was his weight for his professional debut ten years ago.) His body is undefined, his arms are short, and his legs are stocky. Ruiz’s physique is not the ideal in this sport: He is listed at 6-foot-2, but is closer to 5-11, and has weighed as much as 297.5 pounds. In the short build-up to the heavyweight title tiff between Joshua and Ruiz, the latter had to listen to the taunts, particularly pokes at his less-than-lean frame. I just want to thank my team and my family. I can’t believe I just made my dreams come true. “This is what I have been working hard for. This is what I have been dreaming about,” Ruiz says. Seeing Joshua dazed and confused, referee Michael Griffin was compelled to wave it off at the 1:27 mark and award the technical knockout to Ruiz. The Mexican-American was in command of the bout, and he scored two more knockdowns in Round 7. Joshua looked completely out of wits, prompting Ruiz to fire a hard right to the body followed by quick hooks in the sixth round. Late in the same round, Joshua was backed into a corner, where Ruiz unloaded another volley of punches, sending him sprawling down against the ropes. As Joshua’s knees appeared to buckle, Ruiz let loose with a torrent of heavy blows until the champion tasted the canvas. Known by the moniker “Destroyer” due to his hard-hitting style in the ring, Ruiz got up from the knockdown and clobbered a left hook onto his foe’s jaw. From there, the fight was never the same. Instead, he picked himself up and went right after the 2012 Olympic gold medalist. Ruiz was dropped early in the third round from a beautiful right uppercut-left hook combination, but he didn’t fold. But Ruiz never doubted his abilities and wound up becoming the first boxer of Mexican descent to hold a major world heavyweight title. This was supposed to be walk in the park for Joshua, who had a more distinguished career than his upstart opponent. Ruiz wasn’t even supposed to fight last night he only stepped in for disgraced fighter Jarrell Miller who had failed three separate performance enhancing drug tests in March. Andrew Couldridge, Action Images via Reuters The physically smaller Ruiz was, after all, a 15-to-1 underdog.Īndy Ruiz Jr knocks down Anthony Joshua. The odds were ridiculously against Ruiz’s favor that when ring announcer Michael Buffer said “…should this fight go the distance,” fans actually laughed. In a match-up that many pundits expected to be a virtual waste of everybody’s time, the man from California flipped the script and sent shockwaves throughout the boxing world. The two Manny Pacquiaos that showed up in Las Vegas.Crime, candidates, and cringe-worthy moments in and around Pacquiao versus Broner.43 years later, 'Thrilla in Manila' remains etched in the Filipino psyche.Floyd Mayweather is in town-and, sadly, it’s not to challenge Pacquiao.At 40, Pacquiao's zeal to lace up eight-ounce gloves remains alive. The Mexican-American pulled off an improbably win over Anthony Joshua of the United Kingdom to wrest the IBF, IBO, WBO, and WBA heavyweight titles. The sold-out crowd at Madison Square Garden in New York witnessed one such upset yesterday courtesy of 29-year-old Andy Ruiz Jr. In boxing-and just about any other athletic event-there is always a favorite and an underdog.īut in this sport in particular, pugilists dance around in a sort of “theater of the unexpected,” filled with stories of those who have somehow managed to overcome the odds.
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