Andy Ruiz Jr.’s weight has always caused heavy discussion. He has weighed as much as 297 pounds in his pro debut to 256 pounds in his last fight in May.
When he shocked and dropped Anthony Joshua on short notice in 2019, he weighed 268 pounds. But then he enjoyed the victory lap too much and ballooned to 283 pounds within six months. Now Ruiz admitted that his lack of conditioning was largely the reason he lost to Joshua in the rematch.
Ruiz (34-2, 22 KOs) will look to rebound once again when he takes on Luis Ortiz (33-2, 28 KOs) on Sept. 4 at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
It will mark just the second fight since Dec. 2019 for the former heavyweight champion of the world.
“We’re here again and I’m thankful for another opportunity. We didn’t come here to cherry-pick anybody. We wanted a tough opponent and that’s why we picked Luis Ortiz. He’s strong, he’s awkward, he’s a lefty, but we’ve had a long training camp and we’ll be ready,” said Ruiz.
“The main thing for me is going to be staying busy. I’m not underestimating Luis Ortiz, because he comes to fight. He wants to be world champion. On Sept. 4, we’ll go toe-to-toe and we’ll see who’s going to win.”
“It feels good to have this fight set. We know this isn’t going to be an easy fight. He has a different style than what I’m used to, but we’ve trained really hard at the gym to perfect the craft. He’s going to bring it, but we just have to do the best we can to get this victory and go on to win world titles. This is a big fight for me to climb back up the ladder.”
