Tyson Luke Fury vs Andrés Ponce Ruiz, Jr.

STRONGLY RUMORED to be July twenty-second at Wembley Stadium. Note: despite many boxing media outlets irresponsibly jumping the gun on reporting this as "official", absolutely nothing has been confirmed and no public announcement made. All of this conjecture is based on Eddie Hearn confidently proclaiming the fight would occur on that date in an interview earlier this week, followed by suggestive posts on social media from both pugilists.

WBC (fourth defense of Fury) heavyweight title at stake. Ruiz is currently the number two contender, behind only Fury's old thrice-fought rival Deontay Leshun "The Bronze Bomber" Wilder.

For much of the past two months, Fury was in talks for a big unification match with WBA Super, IBF, WBO, and IBO champion Oleksandr Oleksandrovych "The Cat" Usyk with the bout initially slated for a week from tomorrow. Ruiz for his part similarly came tantalizingly close to a bilateral agreement for a final eliminator versus Wilder, that would have taken place a month from now. This, should it coalesce as expected and be officially announced, is probably as suitable a "consolation prize" match as can be hoped for to salvage the situation with both of those having fallen through.

 

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Gonna be ok there, sport?

 

I've been seeing people defending indefensible defenses against the likes of Kabayel or Pulev. Ruiz is a godsend opponent compared to literally anybody other than Usyk or Joshua (or I guess maybe we can include Zhāng on that upper tier now).

 

Yes, fourth defense. That was an official world title bout. Not saying I agree with it, but it's a fact.

If we discounted every voluntary defense the fans considered bogus for one reason or another then you're striking probably a third of every championship match ever from the record.

 

Rightly so but two things can also be true. This sucks compared to unification but most other makeable fights suck compared with this.