Ruiz keen to put the squeeze on Parker

Andy Ruiz plans to suffocate get up close and personal with Joseph Parker, to counter the Kiwi’s height and reach advantage.

The 27-year-old Mexican has laid out his fight plan for their WBO heavyweight title fight in Auckland on December 10.

Parker will know if Ruiz has brushed his teeth before he enters the ring because he plans on being in the Kiwi’s face all night.

‘‘The main thing is just to be on him, me pressing at all times, make him feel suffocated ... that I’m always there,’’ Ruiz said after another exhausting training session at his altitude camp in Big Bear, California.

That might be easier said than done given that Parker has one of the best jabs in the business to go with his clever foot and body movement and will do all he can to keep Ruiz on the outside.

But Ruiz is speaking in the confident terms that come with this game and he’s adamant he has the style and skills to counter Parker’s physical edges.

Parker will take significant height and reach advantages into the fight.

Ruiz didn’t just brush those aside, he welcomed them. ’’I have been fighting tall fighters all my life so this fight is not going to be any different,’’ Ruiz said.

‘‘I like fighting taller fighters because tall fighters don’t like to fight short fighters ... they don’t like them always being there. I like to move and always like being there, it gives problems to a lot of top fighters.

‘‘I find short guys more difficult, they turn in a little ball and it’s harder to get them. Taller fighters, with your speed and combinations, it’s a direct target.’’

Ruiz made it clear he was out to get Parker back-pedalling, feeling the Kiwi was vulnerable under pressure.

‘‘In his fight against Carlos Takam he didn’t really look that good, he’s not good fighting backwards. That’s going to be my advantage, pursuing him and throwing my combinations.’’

Ruiz believes this is his time, especially the way fate delivered the fight to his doorstep with Parker’s handlers cleverly going down the WBO route when they started to get frustrated dealing with Anthony Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn over a mandatory challenge to the IBF title.

‘‘It feels like it was meant to be because I was meant to fight Hughie Fury and that didn’t happen and and then this opportunity came up. It feels like my time,’’ Ruiz said.

He backed himself to handle the demands of travelling to New Zealand and a pro-parker crowd after securing two wins in China, including winning and defending the WBO Inter-continental belt which brought him into the organisation’s rankings equation.

He had sparred with Parker in Las Vegas around that time and then they crossed paths two weeks ago there by accident.

‘‘That was really cool. I saw him and it put a smile on my face. I haven’t seen him since we last sparred in 2013,’’ Ruiz said.

‘‘I have nothing bad to say about him. He’s a good guy, a good fighter ... we are both in this same position because we are both good fighters.

‘‘I like to travel, they say it’s really beautiful out there so I’m excited to go to New Zealand. I’m excited to give the fans a good fight. There’s going to be a lot of fireworks, a lot of exchanges from me and Joseph Parker. It’s going to be a good fight.

‘‘We are both humble guys, we’re friends out of the ring but soon it’s going to be business.’’

Duncan Johnstone travelled to the United States as a guest of Duco Events.

"I like to move and always like being there, it gives problems to a lot of top fighters." Andy Ruiz, above