It’s been a little bit over three years since Andy Ruiz pulled the upsets of all upsets.
Ortiz was a little known pudgy heavyweight when he faced Anthony Joshua at Madison Square Garden. Joshua was looking for the prototypical warmup fight with a fight against Tyson Fury and/or Deontay Wilder seemingly inevitable.
Not only did Ruiz derail Joshua’s plan but he did it with a TKO in the 7th round after being floored in the 3rd round.
The world was his oyster until it wasn’t.
Ortiz came into the rematch looking too much like Buster Douglas when he faced Evander Holyfield. It was obvious that he enjoyed being the champion… maybe too much.
Joshua would cruise to an easy unanimous decision win.
That shouldn’t have been a death sentence for Ruiz. There should’ve been plenty of opportunities but Ruiz disappeared. He would disappear for roughly a year and a half before resurfacing against Chris Arreola. Ruiz would dominate on all scorecards.
Surely this would mean that Ruiz would be set up for another big fight but there isn’t one available for him.
Tyson Fury has moved on to the Sugar Ray Leonard portion of his career. He’ll claim to be retired seeking out handpicked fights. There’s no doubt, Fury would love to have a big money fight with Joshua. That will happen if Joshua wins his rematch with Oleksandr Usyk.
Deontay Wilder seems to be on hiatus since he took the beating he took in the last two fights against Fury. Time will tell but it wouldn’t shock me if the rest of Wilder’s career mimics Meldrick Taylor after his loss in the first Julio Caesar Chavez fight.
A fight with Dillian Whyte or Joseph Parker wouldn’t move the lead. Enter Luis Ortiz.
Ortiz is best known for his two fights against Wilder. Despite losing both fights, he gained a ton of respect. It is guaranteed to be an exciting fight especially if Ortiz has anything in the tank. Beating Ortiz is the type of fight that can get Ruiz’ name back into meaningful conversations.
It could set him up for a fight with Wilder or Usyk if he loses the rematch to Joshua.
For Ruiz, he will need to take advantage of this opportunity because it is looking like it could be his last.
