Hey, champ! Yes, you, Andy Ruiz Jr. We’re talking to you. Great job, big guy! Improbably enough, the 29-year-old Ruiz is now the heavyweight champion of four-fifths of the boxing world.
He stepped into the ring last Saturday night at Madison Square Garden serenaded by a chorus of boos, an 11-1 underdog against England’s undefeated Anthony Joshua, by consensus the sport’s best big man. Seven terrific rounds later, Ruiz emerged holding Joshua’s four title belts and the unofficial denomination of Baddest Man on the Planet.
Admittedly, the days are long since past in America when the reigning heavyweight champion was a household name. But Ruiz’ long-shot victory has made an impression on the public imagination in a way that boxing has rarely done in recent years. That has something — maybe a lot — to do with the fact that Ruiz, unlike his chiseled opponent, does not have a beautiful body. At 6 feet 2 inches tall and 268 pounds, Ruiz’ physique has been fairly described in post-fight stories as “flabby,” “portly,” “doughy” and “roly-poly.”
His trainer, Manny Robles, summed it up nicely: “The great majority of us people are Andy, or look like Andy. Everybody wishes they had a body like Anthony Joshua. We just don’t.” Indeed, the physically imposing Joshua stands 6 feet 6 inches tall and weighs 247 pounds, little to none of it excess.
For his part, Ruiz later noted that, “A lot of people can relate to me. It doesn’t matter how you look. As long as you train hard, you focus and you’re hungry, and that drive is in you to follow your dreams, everything is possible.”
But if Ruiz goes about in the guise of Everyman, boxing’s cognoscenti recognized him as a skilled and determined fighter, with a granite chin and quick hands, who could be a tough opponent for anyone.
And, truthfully, an opponent was just what Ruiz was intended to be. Most professional bouts have an “A” side and a “B” side fighter, with the former expected to prevail. And on paper, Ruiz was perfectly suited for the “B” side: Good enough to test Joshua and allow him to display his brilliant game on a big stage outside of his native England without posing too much of a threat to upset the reigning champion, who had in prospect more lucrative paydays against the heavyweight division’s other big names.
Ruiz, however, was determined to play the starring role, and the rest is boxing history. Dropped early in the third round, Ruiz climbed off the canvas and returned the favor twice to Joshua before the bell sounded. In the seventh, he unleashed a left hook followed by a combination of punches, and down went Joshua again. Ruiz finished the job about 30 seconds later with another flurry of punches, after which the referee wisely stepped in to halt the contest. Everyman had registered a technical knockout as 20,000 stunned fans looked on.
There are other intriguing aspects to the Ruiz story. He took the fight on short notice after Joshua’s original opponent failed a drug test. Not only did he take it, he auditioned for it, sending an Instagram message directly to Joshua’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, begging for a chance: “Give me this fight. I will fight harder than any of the names you’ve mentioned. I will give you a better fight and I will beat Anthony Joshua.” Talk about a man of his word.
And Ruiz, who lives in Imperial, Calif., also proudly became the first heavyweight champion of Mexican descent. “I think it’s going to do a lot for my community, for Mexico,” Ruiz said after the fight.
Long and happily may he reign, at least until his expected rematch with Joshua at the end of the year. If he wins that one, Ruiz may eventually get a chance against Deontay Wilder, who holds the remaining title belt issued by boxing’s alphabet soup of sanctioning organizations.
There’s one troubling note though. At his post-fight news conference, Ruiz declared a new goal: “I want to get in really good shape and look like a Mexican Anthony.”
We hope he doesn’t.