Ahead of his return to the ring, Andy Ruiz has made his shock prediction for what might happen when Tyson Fury fights Oleksandr Usyk next month.
After the best part of two years away from the sport, Ruiz is set to return on the undercard of Terence Crawford versus Israil Madrimov, which will be the former undisputed welterweight king’s first fight up at junior middleweight.
It will be the first overseas event in Los Angeles from Turki Alalshikh and Riyadh Season, who have already made clear they plan to stag future events around the world too.
Other fights on the card include Issac Cruz putting his WBA super-lightweight title on the line against Jose Valenzuela, and Tim Tszyu going up against Vergil Ortiz, provided Ortiz first defeats Thomas Dulorme this Saturday.
Ruiz will be taking on Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller, who is one of boxing’s most controversial figures. The outspoken heavyweight is infamous for having failed several drug tests in the run-up to his fight with Anthony Joshua back in June 2019.
Their bout at Madison Square Garden was pulled last minute and he was out of the ring for some time, although he eventually rebuilt and got himself back in the picture.
He then suffered another setback last time out in December on the Day of Reckoning card in Saudi Arabia when he lost in the dying seconds of the 10th and final round against Daniel Dubois who came through some tricky early rounds to eventually overpower Miller with volume punches.
Miller now has another chance to get back in the frame when he takes on Ruiz, who was the late stand-in opponent for Joshua back in 2019 and famously knocked him down several times on his way to becoming the unified champion of the world.
He lost the belts in the rematch four months later when he was out-boxed soundly for 12 rounds and was barely given any rounds by the judges.
Now, Ruiz has been speaking to Boxing News ahead of the historic undisputed fight between Fury and Usyk and he came down on the side of former undisputed cruiserweight king Usyk.
“I think if Usyk throws his combinations, goes inside there, sticks to the game plan and don’t let Tyson Fury box him around, use his jab, use his distance, I think he can do good.”
The long-awaited heavyweight showdown between Fury and Usyk takes place on May 18 in Saudi Arabia, after their initial date in February was postponed due to the ‘Gypsy King’ suffering a cut in sparring.
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