British Nigerian boxer Anthony Joshua‘s rematch with Andy Ruiz Jr has been confirmed to take place on Saturday, December 7, 2019, in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia. The fight has been tagged: ‘Clash on the Dunes.’
Joshua will be looking to regain his IBF, WBA and WBO titles after losing them in a shocking defeat to Andy Ruiz Jr back in June at Madison Square Garden. The Mexican boxer defeated Joshua in the seventh-round to hand the British Nigerian boxer his first professional loss.
For the rematch, Saudi Arabian sports authorities are said to be putting up almost $100 million (£83 million) for the match to be held there. In the UK, the fight will be shown on Sky Box Office.
However, doubts are beginning to set in as Andy Ruiz is making a fresh demand and has refused to sign the papers, confirming the deal. Ruiz Jr wants an increase in his purse – his prize money.
In June 2019 he scored a major upset by defeating Anthony Joshua to win the WBA (Super), IBF, WBO and IBO heavyweight titles. In doing so, Ruiz became the first boxer of Mexican heritage to become a world heavyweight champion.
As of June 2019, Ruiz is ranked as the world’s best active heavyweight by the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board and BoxRec, and third by The Ring magazine.
Ruiz was born in Imperial, California; his parents had immigrated to the US from Mexico. His father is a former construction worker who started his own business flipping houses.
Ruiz had a passion for baseball before his father got him into boxing; he has noted that his first fight was at age seven in San Diego. Ruiz later worked for his father in construction for a time before deciding to become a full-time boxer and starting his amateur career in Mexico.
His grandfather owned a boxing gym in Mexicali that was used by featherweight champion Jorge Páez. Andy Ruiz Jr has explained that his nickname, ‘Destroyer’, was acquired before he started boxing, because as a child, “I was always destroying stuff.”
Anthony Joshua is reportedly set to to reclaim his titles. Anthony Oluwafemi Olaseni Joshua, OBE is a British professional boxer. He is a former unified world heavyweight champion having held the WBA, IBF, WBO and IBO titles between 2016 and 2019. At regional level he held the British and Commonwealth heavyweight titles from 2014 to 2016.
