{"id":548712,"date":"2026-04-24T18:22:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T18:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/548712\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T18:22:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T18:22:08","slug":"andy-ruiz-jr-names-controversial-heavyweight-as-weakest-puncher-hes-faced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/548712\/","title":{"rendered":"Andy Ruiz Jr Names Controversial Heavyweight As ‘Weakest Puncher He’s Faced’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andy Ruiz Jr.<\/a> has had some disparaging things to say about one of his former heavyweight opponents.<\/p>\n

Ruiz Jr is a former unified world heavyweight champion<\/a>, having taken his opportunity when he was a late stand-in opponent for Anthony Joshua in New York City. \u2018AJ\u2019s initial opponent, Jarrell Miller, tested positive for banned substances late in the day, so he was pulled from the card.<\/p>\n

Ruiz was put down early in the fight but climbed to his feet and then knocked Joshua down four times on his way to a seventh-round KO victory to make him the first Mexican-American and second Hispanic heavyweight champion in boxing history.<\/p>\n

After six months of celebrations, he fared less well in the rematch and was beaten soundly over 12 rounds by a much more circumspect Joshua.<\/p>\n

Since that fight in December 2019, he has fought just three times, beating both Chris Arreola and Luis Ortiz on points before drawing with Miller in August 2024.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Casino.org,<\/a> he was asked about the weakest puncher he has faced in the ring and went with \u2018Big Baby.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cProbably Jarrell Miller, because I let him hit me with everything he had, even with my hands down and he still couldn\u2019t hurt me. So I don\u2019t think Miller has a very strong punch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ruiz has often promised he is close to a ring return<\/a> but has been sidelined with a hand injury for more than a year. Deontay Wilder has long been a possible opponent, while rising star Moses Itauama could also be a good match-up for both.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andy Ruiz Jr. has had some disparaging things to say about one of his former heavyweight opponents. Ruiz…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548713,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-548712","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}