Matchroom boxing heads to the Diriyah Arena in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia to host the most anticipated rematch in boxing Andy Ruiz vs. Anthony Joshua 2. The fights will be live streamed online through various media outlets.
The card will also be stacked with heavyweight talent from former world champion Alexander Povetkin of Russia, UK star Dillian Whyte, and US heavyweight contender Michael Hunter.
Andy Ruiz (33-1, 22 KOs) pulled off one of the biggest upsets in modern boxing on June 1, 2019 when he dethroned the heavyweight champion of the world Anthony Joshua and handing him his first professional defeat.
Ruiz is from Imperial, California and is a small town boy with big time ambition. He saw his opportunity when Joshua’s original opponent Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller got busted for performance enhancing drugs and was pulled from the card.
Promoter Eddie Hearn was weighing his options and picked the relatively unknown Ruiz to fill in as a late replacement to salvage Anthony Joshua’s big US debut at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
When the fight happened it was an all action fight with both fighters tasting the canvas in round three. Eventually Ruiz would make Joshua quit and the ref would stop the fight making him the first ever Mexican-American heavyweight boxing champion in history.
Anthony Joshua (22-1, 21 KOs) was criticized for overlooking Ruiz thinking he would be a cakewalk because of his chubby physique.
Joshua also decided to focus on his stamina for the rematch. Instead of looking like a bodybuilder he focused on movement and fluidity and weighed in 10 pounds lighter at 237 pounds. Ruiz weighed in at over 283 pounds 46 pounds more than Joshua.
The increase in weight for Ruiz worries some people thinking it could be shades of Buster Douglas all over again. After Douglas upset Mike Tyson, he enjoyed his new found fame and didn’t train as seriously for his next fight against Evander Holyfield and also put on an increase of 15 pounds.
Douglas got stopped by Evander Holyfield and lost his titles, he was never able to find the same success in the ring.
Fight Card
Heavyweight Championship – Andy Ruiz Jr vs. Anthony Joshua (WBA, IBF, WBO titles)
Heavyweight – Alexander Povetkin vs. Michael Hunter
Heavyweight – Dillian Whyte vs. Mariusz Wach
Heavyweight – Filip Hrgovic vs. Eric Molina
Heavyweight – Mahammadrasul Majidov vs. Tom Little
Lightweight – Zuhayr Al Qahtani vs. Omar Dusary
Lightweight – Majid Al Naqbi vs. Ilia Beruashvili
Super Middleweight – Diego Pacheco vs. Selemani Saidi
Featherweight – Ivan “Hopey”Price vs. Swedi Mohamedi
Andy Ruiz vs. Anthony Joshua II takes place on December 7, 2019 at Noon ET/PT in the USA, and the main event estimated start time 3:45 PM ET/PT, 8:45 PM in the UK, and 11:45 PM in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia. The event will be shown live in the UK on Sky Sports and live streamed in the USA on DAZN.
