Last year in New Zealand, Joseph Parker (24-0, 18 KOs) won a very close twelve round majority decision over undefeated Andy Ruiz (29-1, 19 KOs) to capture the vacant WBO heavyweight title. The belt became vacant when Tyson Fury dropped his titles to focus on his mental health issues.
Ruiz, who was trained by veteran coach Abel Sanchez for the bout, believes he was robbed of a close decision win.
Ruiz has been inactive since that fight, but he's expected to return in early 2018 - on February 3rd in Texas against an opponent to be determined.
Parker has fought twice since then, securing unimpressive decision wins over Razvan Cojanu in May and then mandatory challenger Hughie Fury in September.
Now Parker is in deep negotiations for a unification bout with WBA, IBO, IBF heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua (20-0, 20 KOs) for the first quarter of 2018. The two sides are currently at a stalemate over the financial split - which is currently at 65-35 in Joshua's favor - but the British boxer wants a bit more.
Joshua has stopped everyone in his path, while Parker has gone the distance in his last three fights and wasn't impressive in several of his recent outings.
Ruiz chimed in, stating that he never once felt Parker's power or came close to being hurt in their fight.
While he views Joshua as being too strong for Parker and appears to give him the edge in the fight, he still opens the door for Parker to get the upset win.
“I think it’ll be a good match up. It could go either way,” Ruiz said to Boxing News.
“I think Joshua’s a little too strong. Joseph didn’t hurt me at all, not even one time. Joseph Parker’s going to have to do something different to what he normally does to win this fight. But Joshua is pretty good. He stays tall too much. He never had a pressure fighter on him all the time. It would be a good match up.”