{"id":681485,"date":"2026-07-09T02:09:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T02:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/681485\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T02:09:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T02:09:08","slug":"matchroom-boxing-sign-former-heavyweight-champion-who-beat-anthony-joshua-going-to-make-a-big-statement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/681485\/","title":{"rendered":"Matchroom Boxing sign former heavyweight champion who beat Anthony Joshua: “Going to make a big statement”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eddie Hearn has added to his promotional stable by signing one of Anthony Joshua<\/a>\u2018s former conquerors.<\/p>\n

Hearn has backed Joshua throughout his entire professional career, guiding the Brit from his debut all the way to unified world heavyweight champion.<\/p>\n

There have been some bumps in the road along the way, notably when Joshua lost his heavyweight crown in an upset defeat to Andy Ruiz Jr in June 2019.<\/a><\/p>\n

Fans had high hopes for Ruiz following the win, but it didn\u2019t transpire that way as he lost his belts in the immediate rematch to Joshua<\/a>, and he has only competed three times since, defeating Chris Arreola and Luis Ortiz before drawing with Jarrell Miller in August 2024.<\/p>\n

After two years out of the ring, Ruiz is now set to return, and he will be doing so under the Matchroom promotional banner after it was announced he will be joining forces with Hearn.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so happy and thankful for signing with Matchroom and taking other step forward to continue my mission and to become a two-time champion of the world for Mexico.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe everything happens for a reason and I\u2019m so grateful God is giving me a second opportunity to do everything right.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes God breaks you to make you a better person and a better fighter. I made history with Matchroom and the DAZN and best believe we are going to do it again in God almighty\u2019s name, amen baby, let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you to all my coaches for still believing in me, we are going to make a big statement in the heavyweight division.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ruiz is scheduled to return to action in September, with a planned bout against Damian Knyba on September 4 in Newark, New Jersey expected to be announced this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eddie Hearn has added to his promotional stable by signing one of Anthony Joshua\u2018s former conquerors. Hearn has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":681486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-681485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681485","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=681485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}