Andy Ruiz Jr. will have questions asked of him by Jarrell Miller this Saturday night that will tell if he still has the fire to continue in the sport.
(Photo credit: Melina Pizano/Matchroom Boxing)
The former unified heavyweight champion Ruiz (35-2, 22 KOs) will be coming off a layoff to battle Miller (26-1-1, 22 KOs) in an entertaining fight on the Riyadh Season event at the BMO Stadium in Los Angeles.
The Curse of Complacency
Promoter Eddie Hearn doubts whether the wealthy 34-year-old Ruiz still has the love for the sport to win this fight against Miller, who needs a win more than him.
After five years, Ruiz would have returned to the top if he loved the sport, but he’s clearly content. You can argue the only reason Ruiz has gotten off the sofa to fight on this card is because he was asked.
Ruiz has earned $10 million in the sport from his two fights against Anthony Joshua in 2019, and it’s less important for him if he loses.
“Basically, what’s happened with Andy Ruiz is he’s made a ton of money, and that’s probably changed him. That’s not his fault, by the way. That’s just a natural thing to happen,” Eddie Hearn told Boxing King Media about Andy Ruiz’s huge fall off since his upset win over Anthony Joshua in June 2019.
Ruiz’s Diminished Desire
Ruiz has shown interest in continuing his career, but his problem is that he’s only wanted the big-money fights against Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury. He wasn’t about to get those fights, given how poor he looked in his rematch with Joshua in December 2019.
Ruiz had become spoiled and didn’t want to work his way back by fighting his way to the top, as normal one-hit wonders do when they’re brought back down to earth.
He’s set in life, living in a beautiful mansion in Southern California, and will be fine as long as he doesn’t lose it all in divorces the way some fighters do.
“He won the Joshua fight. He rematched Joshua. He made a huge amount of money over those two fights,” Hearn continued about Ruiz. “He lost his way a little bit and came back and had a couple of fights [Chris Arreola & Luis Ortiz].”
Ruiz took a two-year break after his loss to Joshua and then didn’t come back until fighting 40-year-old Chris Arreola. He then fought Luis Ortiz and took another two-year layoff. The money has changed Ruiz, and it’s disappointing to see a fighter throw their career away like he’s done.
“Maybe he had some things going on and lost a little bit of love for the game. Now, you’re really going to find out what he has for the game, what kind of love he has for the sport. The more I realize that once you lose the love and desire, it’s just all over,” said Hearn.
Hearn puts it lightly by saying that Ruiz has lost love for the game. When you routinely take two-year breaks from the sport, I’d say that’s a good sign that you’re not into it anymore.
The stuff that Ruiz talks about, saying he wants a trilogy match against Anthony Joshua and a rematch with Joseph Parker, sounds deluded. He’s not active enough to get any of those fights. It’s likely that win or lose on Saturday, Ruiz will disappear for another two-year break unless Turki Alalshikh lures him back by waving some green under his nose.
A Career Defined by Inactivity
“You can cut corners and squeak your way through and get a little bit lucky,” said Hearn. “If you’re good enough, it doesn’t really matter, but when it comes down to it, and when you get asked questions, that’s when you find out. It’s just whether Jarrell can ask those questions if he’s good enough to do that.”
Ruiz is treating his career in a way that suggests he only fights when he wants to get a quick refill for his bank account. He’s not even fighting once a year, and it’s pretty obvious that he views the sport as just a part-time gig to make money.
If Ruiz still loved boxing, he’d be fighting two to three times yearly instead of once every two years. He’s not the same fighter he was back in 2019.
Even the out-of-shape 283-lb version of Ruiz that lost to Joshua in their rematch in December 2019 is better than the 2024 version. Ruiz looked washed in his last appearance against 43-year-old Luis Ortiz in 2022, and he was lucky to win that fight.
“Jarrell is pretty ballsy. If he’s fit enough and he can get into the fight, I think he’s got a great chance. He may not be good enough. Andy is a very good fighter, and he may be too good for him. But if Jarrell can bring him into the fight, do you honestly believe that if it gets really tough that Andy is going to have the desire to fight through that spell?” said Hearn.
Miller has a very good chance of winning this fight if he can drag Ruiz into a fight and outwork him. Ruiz mostly fights in spurts, and he’s there to be hit while he’s resting. If Miller puts it on Ruiz, throwing 80+ punches per round, he’ll win.
It’s unclear whether Miller has the engine to fight hard for a full ten rounds without tiring out and falling victim to Ruz’s heavy shots. In Miller’s recent knockout loss to Daniel Dubois, he fought well for the first half but then gassed out and stopped in the tenth.
Ruiz isn’t as young and talented as Dubois, but he used to be able to put his punches together before he stopped fighting five years ago. He’ll be too much for Miller if he still has some of that ability left.
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