Ruiz is stylistically an easy fight, slow feet with a stationary head and he also beat Anthony joshua, Chris Arreola and Luiz Ortiz, which makes him the most proven heavyweight outside of Fury and Joshua. Unbeaten against Joshua 2x, Fury 2x, Dubois 2x, Wilder, Ruiz, Chisora, 3x undisputed, greatest cruiserweight of all time. This resume won't be surpassed for several decades at least, maybe even a century
Miller wouldn't look as good on Usyks resume tbh, he'd be seen as another Chisora. Ruiz has the bigger wins
That might actually be in the plans. They were talking on Counterpunch boxing today about how Usyk is looking to cut ties with Turkyi and find an American promotor. He might be trying to tap into an American market. If the Wilder fight comes off, I could see him pivoting to Fat Andy, as it was discussed a couple of months ago.I have no idea who would be #3 in that scenario. Hunter II? Torrez? Anderson? American heavies really are a ghost town.
Had enough of fighting in boring Saudi an London. Want to fight in the historic bright boxing lights of the good ol USA where all the boxing greats have fought
I have long said that the awful old HW era, dominated by AJ/Wilder/Tyson Fury with the occasional cameo appearance by Andy Ruiz is over. Usyk has beaten both AJ and Tyson Fury twice, if he now smashes Wilder and then beats Andy Ruiz, he will have emphatically buried that era. All of those men have had stretches of inactivity, many fights with bums, and other issues (like Tyson Fury pulling out of fight, after fight, after fight). They all deserve to be tossed into the ashbin of boxing history, and Usyk is just the man to do it.
One thing about that -- Ruiz was winning every round until he broke his hand. He literally pulled off the wraps mid-ring after so nobody could call it a BS excuse or say it wasn't true -- his hand was very definitely broken. One he broke his hand he started getting beat up and gassed. But because he's a tough ****er he was able to stay in there, then somehow summoned enough to win the last round. He honestly wasn't looking bad until the break happened.
My guess is that Usyk just wants to do some easy fights now and Turki wants real fights. It's really the only thing that makes sense.
Except America has **** for heavies right now. We've got plenty of great p4p guys, hell, after that last performance from Benavidez I think we may even be able to give Russia a run for it's money at 175. But heavies? Miller? Ruiz? Anderson? We've really got nothing.
Absolutely not, That slob Ruiz has fought once in the last 3 years and probably lost that one. That sound like a deserving title challenger?