Ex-champ Ruiz ready to start over
This is the beginning of the road back for Andy Ruiz Jr., the boxer who put the heavy in heavyweight on the way to a world championship celebrated from the office of Mexico’s president to the gritty agricultural region surrounding his hometown of Imperial.
The man labeled a “real-life Rocky” stunned the sport and then-champion
Anthony Joshua by capturing four title belts on June 1, 2019, at Madison Square Garden.
Ruiz sparked debates about body shape and convention, winning for the doughy among us to spite the sculpted and chiseled. He was the gargantuan underdog, in more ways than one. He punched his way through doubts and disbelievers, cheered by inspired dreamers. He became a hometown hero.
Then came the cheeseburgers, burritos and Snickers bars, the drinking, the slack training, the fractured focus. The partying. A mansion. Luxury
cars. Hangers-on.
In a mandatory rematch against Joshua six months later in Saudi Arabia, the overweight and mismatched
champion offered a faint challenge while losing by unanimous decision. In the moment, Ruiz quickly realized he’d lost more than the WBA, IBF, WBO and IBO belts.
“A lot of temptations by eating the stuff you’re not supposed to eat, drinking the stuff you’re not supposed to drink,” Ruiz recently told the Union-Tribune. “There’s more, I don’t want to get specific, but I was down. I felt like I let my people down. I let down my family and myself.”
Now, he’s preparing for a fight that could be the fightbefore-the-fight against veteran Chris Arreola during a Fox Sports pay-perview event May 1 at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson. Win and a possible fight could materialize against Deontay Wilder, the longtime WBC champ who suffered his first loss as a professional in February 2020 to Tyson Fury. Wilder stands 42-1-1.
Lose and …
“Man, I’m ready for this change and this new chapter,” Ruiz said. “The main thing I changed was the discipline. I didn’t have no discipline, especially my last fight. I feel like this is a new start for me, like this is my first fight.”
It’s hard to blame Ruiz for falling into a trap that has claimed countless athletes who lost their way after finding the top of the mountain. Chasing the dream, the
money, the nationalistic pride had served as an invaluable carrot.
Once Ruiz had a bite — or far too many bites, most times — the underpinnings of a champion crumbled.
Ruiz rocketed past 310 pounds.
“My weakness was a lot of sweets,” he said. “That’s something I had to cut off. Now I eat a lot of fish and good stuff. Now, I’m 255. I want to be get down to 235,
but that’s not going to happen in one camp. I have to keep working.
“The main thing is turning that fat into muscle and tightening up.”
Reviving his boxing life required focusing on the mental side of things as much as the muscle. He trained not just for the upcoming fight, but committed to the hot and heavy work to assemble the building blocks necessary to contend again.
He started working on the area between his ears.
“My life ever since the Saudi Arabia fight has been a roller coaster, ups and downs,” Ruiz said. “I was a little depressed. One time, I got to my knees, tired of how I was living and prayed to God to give me a chance to make me a better person, a better father, a better everything.
“What do you know? The next day, I woke up super motivated. I was ready.”
Ready to leave behind the Rolls Royce. Ready to leave behind the stately outdoor pool. Ready to distance himself from socalled friends and distractions. This had to be all-in, or nothing at all. There’s no in between when the world’s best heavyweights start throwing sledgehammer punches.
Ruiz moved on from trainer Manny Robles and reached out to Mexican super-middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez, the man ranked the best poundfor-pound boxer in the world who trains at House of Boxing in San Diego.
Quickly, Ruiz found himself meeting with Alvarez and trainer Eddy Reynoso.
“When we sat down, Eddy said, ‘We have a lot of respect for you, but if you come over here you have to give it 100 percent,’ ” Ruiz said.
In Alvarez, Ruiz found a new and powerful carrot. Ruiz elevated workouts and dietary habits to prove his unbending commitment. Boxing’s pre-eminent star shared tips. They dissected strategy. They fed off each other.
In boxing parlance, Ruiz has “heavy hands.” Add mobility and agility while increasing stamina would make him more dangerous than the day he stunned the world by winning the heavyweight title.
“I was down,” Ruiz said. “I got back up. I’m still young, 31 years old. That’s really young in the heavyweight division. I still have more to prove, you know?”
Proving is the thing. Especially for Ruiz. Especially now.