Andy Ruiz Jr. insists he will soon be back in the ring and has named the one man he hopes to face the most.
Ruiz Jr has not fought in more than a year. Last time out, he battled to a draw with American heavyweight Jarrell Miller in August 2024, and before that, he fought just once in 2022 and once in 2021, both times registering unanimous decisions over Luiz Ortiz and Chris Arreola.
His most famous night in a ring came in June 2019 when he was a late stand-in opponent for Anthony Joshua and handed the Brit his first loss in devastating fashion. After having his man down several times, Ruiz finally stopped him in round six to become the unified champion of the world.
After not applying himself in camp for the rematch, an unfit Ruiz then lost a wide points decision six months later in Saudi Arabia, which saw Joshua regain his belts.
Ruiz has now claimed he is soon to be back in camp and looking to get back into big fights. As he has told Covers, a trilogy fight with Joshua remains high on his list of priorities.
“That’s something that I would love to [do]. I think that would be like the first fight that I would even want to join because, you know, there’s bad blood that we left behind – especially me, losing against him in Saudi Arabia, I want my revenge.
“I want another chance against him. We could do the trilogy. That’s something that me and Eddie Hearn talked about as well. But I need to get back in action and get a few fights in there and start calling out these big names.”
Joshua himself has not fought for a year since his KO loss to Daniel Dubois in September 2024, though he returns to the ring in December when he takes on Jake Paul.
