An intriguing heavyweight bout between former unified world champion Mexican-American Andy Ruiz Jr. (34-2, 22 KOs) and two-time challenger Cuban Luis Ortiz (33-2, 28 KOs) will take place on August 13 in Los Angeles (USA) at Crypto.com arena (ex-Staples Center). This is stated
ESPN Knockout.
The father-manager of the former champion Andy Ruiz Sr. commented on the news: “The son will shut the mouth of the dude who dared to call him a coward. He is very motivated. He wants to show the world that he is an elite heavyweight and that he is not afraid of anyone.”
The thing is that earlier Ruiz announced an interim fight against the Dutch kickboxing star Tyrone Spong in Mexico. Ortiz was outraged by the Mexican’s statement, calling him a coward, since they had already agreed on a face-to-face fight. Later it became known that the fight against Spong is temporarily unavailable, as Ruiz had already signed a contract to fight the Cuban.
32-year-old Ruiz in the summer of 2019 sensationally took away three titles from Briton Anthony Joshua, but lost to him without options in a rematch. Since then, the fighter has had one interim fight against veteran Chris Arreola, in which he did not impress.
43-year-old Ortiz twice tried to take away the WBC belt from American puncher Deontay Wilder. Twice convincingly led in the account, but in both cases he lost by knockout (No. 1 and No. 2). In January 2022, he fell twice, but snatched an early victory from former US champion Charles Martin.
Both are in the top 10 of the division according to WMMAA, but one of them will soon leave the top ten due to low activity.
In order not to miss the most interesting news from the world of boxing and MMA, subscribe to us at
Facebook and
Google News.