Andy Ruiz will have his first fight since losing his heavyweight crown to Anthony Joshua in December 2019 when he takes on former beltholder Chris Arreola on April 24th.
For Ruiz, it’ll be his first fight with new trainer Eddy Reynoso in his corner and the Mexican contender will be desperate to erase memories of his average showing in his rematch against Joshua.
Ruiz’ move to Reynoso is a strategy aimed to propel the former champion back to the lofty platform he occupied in the summer of 2019. Then, Ruiz shocked the world with one of boxing’s biggest ever upsets when he dropped Joshua four times en route to a seventh round stoppage.
His performance in the rematch that followed six months later in Saudi Arabia received widespread scorn from the boxing public as Ruiz came in well overweight and had no answer to Joshua’s cautious tactics. Now armed with arguably the sport’s best trainer, Sergio Mora, speaking on DAZN’s Jabs show, believes the move will benefit Ruiz.
“Eddy Reynoso is bringing a championship stable,” stated Mora. “Whenever you have Andy Ruiz training with hungry fighters like Ryan Garcia, Frank Sanchez, and of course, Canelo Alvarez, it rubs off.
"You train around greatness then you become greater. Not only does Eddy Reynoso have the power to tweak certain fighters but he can do it in a matter where you don’t need fast feet.
"Alvarez has flat feet, Garcia has flat feet, but they all have explosive hands and they have the fighting I.Q. They know how to fight and they have heart. I love this fight. Chris Arreola has only lost to champions and he’s always in entertaining fights”
Despite Mora believing the move has the potential to be a successful one, his co-host on Jabs, Chris Mannix, does have some reservations about the link-up.
“I don’t know what the impact of Eddy Reynoso will be. Reynoso has had most of his success with smaller weight fighters," he said.
“I’m curious what Reynoso is going to be able to do with a heavyweight like Andy Ruiz. He doesn’t have great footwork. He does have fast hands and is a skilled guy but I don’t know what Team Reynoso is going to be able to enhance.”
For more on Andy Ruiz and Eddy Reynoso along with other much-talked-about boxing topics, click here to watch the latest edition of Jabs with Chris Mannix and Sergio Mora.