WBA, IBF and WBO world heavyweight champion Andy Ruiz Jnr has confirmed he will rematch former champion Anthony Joshua before the end of the year but stresses the fight will not take place in Saudi Arabia, as announced earlier this week.
The plan, according to a press release last Friday and a press conference on Monday, was for the rematch to happen on December 7 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Absent from this press conference, however, were the two fighters, Ruiz and Joshua, and there was speculation over the weekend that the champion wasnโt best pleased with the premature announcement of a Middle East showdown. Addressing his fans on social media, Ruiz today confirmed this to be true.
โI know everybody is talking about the fight and all that, but we got the real news coming soon and the fight is going to happen soon,โ said Ruiz.
โWeโve got the rematch. But itโs going to be on my terms and our terms. Weโre going to bring it back here in the United States.
โโLike I said, I donโt have no protection over there (in Saudi Arabia). The United States of America wants to … never mind, I canโt say nothing, but the fight is going to happen soon.โ
On Monday, Eddie Hearn, the event promoter, appeared alongside Omar Khalil, the managing partner of Skill Challenge Entertainment, and claimed Ruiz had signed his side of the contract, leaving them free to announce the date and venue.
โThey have 100 per cent signed the contract for this fight,โ Hearn said. โThis is boxing. Of course, when Andy Ruiz signed the contract for the first and second fights, it was a dream come true for him.
โHe would have taken much less to be honest with you. Once he wins the first fight, every man and his dog from his local gym is telling him he should be getting this and that.
โThe deal was very fair. The deal was negotiated and everyone who signed that deal, whether it was Tom Brown, his promoter, whether itโs Ruiz himself, Al Haymon, his management company, they all know their obligations.โ
It seemed initially that Ruizโs preferred choice of venue was Madison Square Garden, New York, whereas Joshua quite fancied bringing the rematch to the Principality Stadium, Cardiff, Wales. To compromise, Hearn felt the decision to bring the fight to Saudi Arabia would keep both fighters happy.
โThey made it clear they didnโt want to come to the UK,โ he said. โWe were within our rights to stage it in the UK but, to be honest with you, we didnโt want any excuses. There would have been 10 times more problems with Andy Ruiz to come to the UK than a neutral venue.
โThat process was discussed with them and they said they would be a lot more comfortable to go to Saudi Arabia. Once that decision was made, the contracts were signed last Wednesday or Thursday and myself and Tom Brown emailed the governing bodies to let them know the date of the fight, the venue for the fight and that process is confirmed with the governing bodies.โ
Once a late-notice replacement, Andy Ruiz Jnr seemed overjoyed just to get the opportunity to face Anthony Joshua on June 1 in New York. Critics called him a โcompetition winnerโ, suggesting he was content to take part, hold Joshuaโs belts, and pose for pictures. He was billed as the fall guy, the sacrificial lamb, and was expected to follow the script.
Now, though, the entire picture has changed. Now, thanks to a stunning upset victory, itโs Andy Ruiz who is the one with the belts and itโs Andy Ruiz who, evidently, is the one calling the shots โ or so he believes.
There was once a time when it seemed inevitable Amir Khan and Kell Brook would settle their differences in a ring located somewhere inside a UK football stadium.
The fact it never happened left both a little lighter in the pocket and blaming one another for failing to deliver what most fans considered a natural fight.
Now, years later, Khan has relocated his career to Saudi Arabia and Brook has yet to box at all in 2019, meaning he is constantly subjected to questions regarding retirement. But their egos remain just as they were.
Because of this, itโs unlikely the two will ever meet.
โHe should get in line,โ Khan said on the Ask the Experts podcast. โI really feel he should retire. I donโt want to fight him, give him a beating and hurt him.
โHe should retire because heโs had two eye sockets broken, heโs already slurring. Heโs been beaten up basically.
โKell has nothing exciting going for him. Thatโs why he keeps calling my name out and living off the back of that.
โSo I just feel that if the fight happens, it happens and he would get hurt. Boxing is a tough sport, especially when someone is already broken. I donโt want to be giving any more punishment to him.
โIf he does fight me, thereโs only one winner.โ
Though it may sound like compassion, rest assured, it isnโt. Khan, rather than feel concerned about Brookโs well-being, is simply buoyed by the thought his pro career, which started a year later than Brookโs in 2005, remains semi-relevant while Brook, for now, lingers in a sort of boxing purgatory.
Itโs not a victory for Khan, at least not the one he always wanted, but it will do.