BoxRec

By Max Seitelman: Andy Ruiz Jr and Chris Arreola have reportedly agreed to a fight that will be taking place in late 2020. Mike Coppinger reportedly that the highly ranked former IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Ruiz Jr (33-2, 22 KOs) and former the-time world title challenger Arreola (38-6-1,33 KOs) will be meeting up in a battle between two sluggers.

Ruiz will get a chance to show the fans that he’s made improvements in his game in taking on the well-known Arreola.

Arreola popular with older fans

The older casual boxing fans knew of Arreola from his fights against Deontay Wilder, Bermane Stiverne, Vitali Klitschko, Tomasz Adamek, Seth Mitchell, and Jameel McCline years ago.

From 2008 to 2013, Arreola was among the best heavyweights in the division. Although Chris never won a world title, he was kind enough to fight for world titles on three occasions, losing each time.

The slimmed-down Ruiz, 30, will be fighting for the first time since losing his three titles to Anthony Joshua in a rematch that took place on December 7 in Saudi Arabia.

Ruiz weighed a whopping 283 lbs for that fight, but he’s since trimmed down considerably and appears to be in the 250s now.

The reaction from boxing fans on social media in the news of Ruiz and 39-year-old Arreola having agreed to a fight is negative. People want to see Ruiz take on #3 WBA, #3 WBC Luis Ortiz rather than #7 WBA Arreola, who is coming off of a 12 round unanimous decision defeat to Adam Kownacki last year on August 3, 2019.

Arreola threw an absurd 1125 punches in the fight but still lose by these set of comprehensive scores: 117-111, 117-111 and 118-110.

Ortiz would have been the better option

The season for that is most of the shots threw arm punches with no power on them, and they didn’t look as impressive as the heavy shots that Kownacki was nailing him with. The 1125 punches that Arreola threw broke a CompuBox record for punches thrown by a heavyweight.

Throwing over 1000+ punches in a fight still is an impressive statistic by Arreola, and he did damage to Kownacki. In Kownacki’s next match against Robert Helenius, he was knocked out in the 4th round last March in New York.

Ortiz (31-2, 26 KOs) is someone that Ruiz Jr might wind up facing in 2021, considering he’s someone that will help him get ranked higher.

Ruiz Jr wants a rematch with Joshua, but his promoter Eddie Hearn said he needs to build himself back up and redeem himself by beating several highly ranked heavyweights before he’ll consider him.

Arreola is more of a stay-busy fight for Ruiz Jr, and he’s not going to impress Hearn and AJ with a win over him. Ruiz Jr needs a solid win over Ortiz, 41, or one of the other top ten heavyweights for him show Joshua and Hearn that he can be taken seriously as an opponent.

Ruiz Jr hurt his reputation by coming into the fight with Joshua so grossly out of shape and putting in poor performance.

Andy Jr playing it safe

The fact that Ruiz Jr is facing Arreola rather than a higher-ranked contender like Ortiz suggests that there’s some concern on his management’s part. Arreola is up there in age at almost 40, and this is a relatively safe fight for Ruiz Jr as long as he’s in good condition.

Ruiz Jr can’t afford to come into the fight with Arreola out of shape because he’ll get outworked by him. There’s no way of Ruiz Jr can throw over 1000+ shots the way that Arreola did against Kownacki.

The downside of choosing Arreola for Ruiz Jr is the flak that he’ll receive from boxing fans for choosing him rather than a higher-ranked contender. By taking this fight, Ruiz Jr is putting himself in the position where if he doesn’t look good, it’s going to hurt his career

A decent matchup, if Arreola is prepared at least like vs Kownacki. Anyway, Ruiz is an obvious favorite here.

This is a good fight for Andy Ruiz Jr. to take at this point in time.

He's looking much slimmer at the moment, but I guess we have to take these photos with a pinch of salt.

Enlightened-One wrote: ↑14 Aug 2020, 05:20 This is a good fight for Andy Ruiz Jr. to take at this point in time.

He's looking much slimmer at the moment, but I guess we have to take these photos with a pinch of salt.

His arms looks somewhat ripped. But i will believe all this after actual weigh in

One sided showcase beatdown

Returns

Luis Ortiz To Fight Scott Alexander On FOX’s Ruiz-Arreola Undercard November 7

No criticism for Ruiz ducking Ortiz, but Ortiz gets plenty for who he is fighting on the undercard. Hypocrisy at its finest.

Lol Arreola is still better than dudes like Scott ALexander, and let's face it, Ortiz says he'll fight opponents any time and any place, then rejects millions to fight them (that's where Andy stepped in and delivered). You're a sucker if you believe all his talk.

So Ruiz is more worried about his clothes than his conditioning. Shocking.

Btw for years Ruiz got painted as a total irrelevant joke for beating the type of opponents Ortiz has while the needle loving Ortiz somehow maintained a boogeyman status, if there's a double standard it's that Ortiz could still have had so many of his bois defending him as some massively feared and ducked boogeyman despite spending the last years beating exclusively trash and rejecting big offers to fight dudes he proclaimed he'd face any time, any place, for any money

Even here Ruiz is against the better opponent, Luis's opponent could only manage a split decision vs a 7-27 dude last time

But you know, people keep adding hypothetical wins to Ort's ledger, so why should he even bother to have real fights vs these dudes lol

And any extra Ruiz love is because he actually beat the big A side establishment king, rather than just getting KO'd twice.

I'm sure Luis would be a folk hero if he'd KO'd the awful , evil, conspiring Deontay Wilder

margaret thatcher wrote: ↑03 Sep 2020, 09:49Btw for years Ruiz got painted as a total irrelevant joke for beating the type of opponents Ortiz has while the needle loving Ortiz somehow maintained a boogeyman status...

I agree with everything you say.

It’s clear that fight fans employ double standards, based solely on their personal bias, rather than the actions of the people they’re defending or criticising.

So for instance, two people can commit the very same proverbial “crime”, but this would weirdly result in one individual being aggressively ridiculed, whereas the other would be passionately defended at all cost.

Microcosm of why boxing isnt popular anymore

Ortiz v ruiz is what we should be watching. Easy to make good fight we would all look forward to. Instead showcase garbage that made al haymon famous

Jeff_lacy_ko wrote: ↑03 Sep 2020, 10:29 Microcosm of why boxing isnt popular anymore

Ortiz v ruiz is what we should be watching. Easy to make good fight we would all look forward to. Instead showcase garbage that made al haymon famous

Yeah, the same card FFS, but both Ruiz and Ortiz fights those, whom they will handle easily very likely. And this while they both have nothing to lose. A huge shame.

O dont get Al

Why waste a tv date with this? Why waste salary money? It serves no purpose.

The average boxrec fan can run boxing better than dazn and pbc. Its embarrassing.

Jeff_lacy_ko wrote: ↑03 Sep 2020, 10:29 Microcosm of why boxing isnt popular anymore

Ortiz v ruiz is what we should be watching. Easy to make good fight we would all look forward to. Instead showcase garbage that made al haymon famous

yes!

Suppose, just suppose, Arreolla lands a miracle punch, wobbles Ruiz, stays on him and gets a quick wave off.
Unlikely but the only way Arreolla can win. Just suppose.
Does that get Chris anywhere or just finish Ruiz for good ?

Well, Chris is still all over TV and getting fights vs contenders even now, when he hasn't scored a half notable win in years, so apparently just being a big fat Mexican is enough to get him somewhere

Wilder-Stiverne 2
Wilder-Ortiz 2
Wilder-Fury 2

So f@ck it, why not Wilder-Arreola 2

Nah jkjk

I have no real problem with Ruiz-Arreola. I think Arreola still operates at a decent level, there are far worse opponents Ruiz could have chosen. Scott Alexander for one, now there’s a joke of a fight...

chinarich wrote: ↑03 Sep 2020, 13:23 I have no real problem with Ruiz-Arreola. I think Arreola still operates at a decent level, there are far worse opponents Ruiz could have chosen. Scott Alexander for one, now there’s a joke of a fight...

Watch his war with curtis harper and tell me he still operates at a decent level

Chris still gives it a go and might get flattered a bit by Ruiz's low work rate and often very lazy fighting, he'll prob do enough to get yet another fight like this. Hell watch him lose then get matched with ortiz lol

Jeff_lacy_ko wrote: ↑03 Sep 2020, 14:03

chinarich wrote: ↑03 Sep 2020, 13:23 I have no real problem with Ruiz-Arreola. I think Arreola still operates at a decent level, there are far worse opponents Ruiz could have chosen. Scott Alexander for one, now there’s a joke of a fight...

Watch his war with curtis harper and tell me he still operates at a decent level

I haven’t seen it, although he was poor against Fred Kassi around that time and shouldn’t have even got the draw. Thought he was better against Kownacki though...

ruiz walks him down in 6

baby faced assasin style !

and then demands a title shot .

I wouldn't cross the road to watch this fight. In his prime Arreola's greatest attribute was his ability to soak up punishment and his prime was a good few years back.

You just have to look at the predictions on this thread and that tells you all you need to know.