Heavyweight Andy Ruiz had a mixed bag of tricks in 2019.
Coming in as a late replacement for Jarrell Miller in June, the Mexican heavyweight shocked the world when he scored four knockdowns and stopped Anthony Joshua in the seventh round to capture the IBF, IBO, WBA, WBO heavyweight titles.
A rematch took place earlier this month in Saudi Arabia, with Joshua winning a dominant twelve round unanimous decision to reclaim his four world titles.
Ruiz was in poor physical condition for the rematch, and later admitted that he partied for two full months in the aftermath of his big win. The partying prevented him from starting his training camp on time.
WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford, who was stablemates when Ruiz was promoted by Top Rank, expects the big heavyweight to return even stronger.
“Just get back in the gym, you know, train hard, lose a little bit of weight,” Crawford said to TMZ.
“I know Andy. He will come back stronger than what he did, you know. He knows where he’s at right now. He knows he’s among the top heavyweights in the world, so he’ll bounce back.”
Heavyweight legend Evander Holyfield had once used a young Ruiz as a sparring partner.
He says the boxer must go back to the gym, make the right adjustments and return in better form.
"Joshua became champion again, right? He made an adjustment," Holyfield told TMZ. "People who make adjustments, their chances is still good. He made some bad choices. When you make bad choices, you gotta be accountable. If you're accountable, you can make adjustments."
"Go back to the work plan. Do what your daddy tell you to do. All these years, he's been right, what makes you think he's goin' be wrong?"