Altitude allied to attitude help reshape Ruiz
Mexican fighter Andy Ruiz is leaving nothing to chance as he puts in the hard yards to get into prime physical condition in preparation for the WBO heavyweight showdown with New Zealand’s Joseph Parker in Auckland next month, reports Duncan Johnstone in B
THEY’RE getting ready for snow at Big Bear, a small lakeside ski resort 2100m in the mountains that run between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
Already it’s one degree as dusk falls on the Summit boxing camp, nestled amongst the pines that tower over a cluster of log cabins.
Inside every heating source is turned on and the temperature is going past 35 degrees as Andy Ruiz painfully but willingly pushes himself to places he’s never been in his training.
A fighter who made his pro debut at 135kg and has regularly been insulted over his weight, even labelled a slob, is on a mission to win theWBO heavyweight title at the expense of New Zealand’s Joseph Parker.
Ruiz has decided it’s time to stop taking short cuts and try to get a body to do proper justice to his ability.
He’s come to this tiny town with a big boxing reputation.
The altitude attraction has drawn stars like Mike Tyson, Oscar De La Hoya, Shane Mosley, Riddick Bowe and more recently and most famously Gennady Golovkin, aka GGG, the unified world middleweight champion rated the best in the game. Aim high, train high.
Posters and memorabilia bearing these names adorn the walls of the two low-ceiling basement rooms where Ruiz toils.
One houses a boxing ring and bags, the other looks more like a torture chamber given the diversity of training equipment, some clearly custom built for specific purposes.
Abel Sanchez, trainer to the stars including GGG, his 16th world champion, is now charged with reshaping Mexico’s great heavyweight hope.
He dishes out encouragement as Ruiz pulls and shunts a sled stacked with weights backwards and forwards across a room that has become a sweat-box.
Ruiz has been here twice before. He came as a 140kg 17-year-old chasing Olympics glory. He came back six months ago at 130kg before a fight with Britain’s Hughie Fury was eventually cancelled. The stakes have raised enormously and this time he’s here to stay. He’s finally made a connection with Sanchez and a promise to himself.
‘‘I feel I should have been here a long time ago in my career,’’ the friendly 27-year-old says as he wipes away the sweat at the end of a two-hour session that came on top of a 5km run and eight four-minute rounds of sparring.
‘‘I’ve never trained hard like this in my life, this is nothing like my training in Vegas.
‘‘You learn to enjoy it. The body gets used to it. The first two weeks are brutal. But then I think I have been waiting for this opportunity all my life and I have to sacrifice whatever I can to win.
‘‘It took me 21⁄ weeks to get used to the altitude.
‘‘The sparring was the hardest. But at the end of the day it is going to benefit me a lot.
‘‘Already I feel more confident, I feel I’m going to be ready for December 10. People are going to see a different Andy Ruiz, better in shape, better endurance.’’
The differences are already obvious from the file photos of Ruiz that have been doing the media rounds in New Zealand since this fight was first mooted.
His face is thinner, his arms and legs have decent muscle definition.
He started at 125kg and is down to 118kg in three weeks. He intends to be around 111kg for fight night at Vector Arena at the end of his eight-week buildup.
This is a bootcamp where he literally eats, works and sleeps his dream. It starts at 6am and his final session ends at 6pm.
His diet has taken a shakeup. Tacos and burritos have been replaced by fish and chicken. There are still five meals a day to fuel him but they are small portions.
‘‘We’re in lockdown, we’re in the middle of nowhere. I have my chef here who cooks all the good stuff for me. Before I used to eat like a sumo wrestler, I’d eat like piles of food. It’s a lot of change.’’
He’s liking what he sees in the full length mirrors that line two of the gym walls. It hasn’t always been that way. He’s heard those taunts.
‘‘Yeah, it puts me down. But it gets me motivated as well.
‘‘Even for being a slob, I’m still 29-0 with 19 knockouts. It’s hard to criticise a fighter when you are not in the ring doing what we do.
‘‘God gave me this ability, being chubby but still being fast and hitting fast. There aren’t many fighters that are like that. They criticise me a lot. A lot of fighters underestimate me and what do you know, they end up being on the canvas.’’
Ruiz’s fighting name of ‘‘The Destroyer’’ came long before he became a heavyweight star.
‘‘My dad put me in boxing because I was a hyperactive kid, always breaking stuff. They called me ‘‘The Destroyer’’ because I was always destroying stuff. They’d buy me a toy and the next day I would break it.
‘‘My dad said I needed to get into a sport. First it was karate but I didn’t like it because it was boring, there wasn’t the action like we see in the movies. Then it was boxing.
‘‘I was six years old and my first week they put me in sparring and beat me up. I cried and didn’t want to go back.
‘‘But my dad said I had to go back and practice and I’d be the one beating them up.
‘‘I practiced a whole year and had my first amateur fight at seven and, yeah, I started beating everyone up.’’
He admits he was a ‘‘little gangster’’ at school, mixing with bad kids and that boxing and the repeated encouragement of his father saved his life. He’s still tagged a ‘‘bad hombre’’ though more in jest than anything sinister.
He has inspiration around him at Big Bear beyond the masterly advice of Sanchez. GGG arrives on Monday for another camp and granite-like cruiserweight Russian Murat Gassiev is training for his December 3 world title fight in Moscow.
‘‘We’re a team here helping each other.
‘‘Every time GGG is here he makes me do extra stuff. He wants me to win and be world champion and he is a good guy.
‘‘But I know that ultimately this is all up to me, ain’t no-one going to train for me, or get in the ring for me. I have to get in the ring all by my own.’’
But he trains with advice from GGG that he will take into the ring against Parker.
‘‘He’s teaching me that everything is mental. If something hurts, then think that it doesn’t hurt. And it’s true, 80 percent is mental, 20 percent is physical. If it hurts, keep going and keep going.’’
– Duncan Johnstone travelled to the United States as a guest of Duco Events.
Even for being a slob, I’m still 29-0 with 19 knockouts. It’s hard to criticise a fighter when you are not in the ring doing what we do.’ ANDY RUIZ