American professional boxer Andrés Ponce Ruiz Jr. was born on September 11, 1989. In 2019, he defeated Anthony Joshua to win the WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, and IBO titles. He is a former unified heavyweight champion and the first man of Mexican descent to hold the title.
He is currently ranked as the fifth-best active heavyweight in the world by ESPN, sixth by the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board and BoxRec, and seventh by The Ring magazine as of October 2021.
Early life
Ruiz was born in Imperial, California; his parents had immigrated from Mexico to the country. His father founded his own company by starting to flip houses. He had formerly been employed in the construction industry. Prior to being introduced to boxing by his father, Ruiz was an avid baseball player. He stated that his first bout occurred when he was seven years old in San Diego.
Later, Ruiz briefly assisted his father in construction before opting to devote himself to boxing full-time. and began his amateur career in Mexico.Jorge Páez, the featherweight champion, trained at the Mexicali boxing club owned by his grandpa. According to Ruiz, his nickname “Destroyer” was given to him before he began boxing because, as a youngster, “I was always smashing stuff.”
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Amateur Career
Under the direction of Cuban trainer Fernando Ferrer, Ruiz boxed to a 105-5 record throughout his amateur career.
His 105 victories include two gold medals from the Mexican National Junior Olympics and a victory in the Ringside World Championships.
Additionally, Ruiz competed for Mexico in two Olympic Games qualification competitions for the 2008 Beijing Games.
In the first and second qualifiers, he was defeated by eventual Olympians Robert Alfonso of Cuba and Carlos Rivas of Colombia. Due to the fact that both of Ruiz’s parents were born in Mexico, he is qualified to represent the country.
For his pay-per-view fight this Sunday against Luis “King Kong” Ortiz, the former Unified Heavyweight World Champion Andy Ruiz Jr. has revealed what appears to be a completely changed physique.
Ruiz’s physique has drawn criticism frequently, and he has even been labeled the “chubby Mexican” who astonished the world.
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Andy Ruiz’s Body Transformation
When he made his lone world title defense in the rematch with Anthony Joshua in December 2019, he was severely scrutinized for his weight. After AJ’s original opponent, Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller, failed a drug test, Ruiz agreed to the fight on short notice and entered the ring weighing 283 12 lbs, 15 12 lbs more than he had in the first fight.
Although he appeared to have gone too far in his weight loss when “The Destroyer” made a comeback against Chris Arreola in May of last year, he was almost 30 pounds lighter than he had been in his previous bout.
Teddy Atlas, a well-known boxing trainer who is now a sports analyst, thought that this might have been the cause of Ruiz’s lackluster performance that evening. Ruiz “may have shed too much weight under his new trainer,” Atlas claimed on his podcast.
Ruiz Jr. has finished changing his body.
That’s because, according to Michael Benson of talkSPORT, the former world champion weighed almost two stone less than he did for the Joshua rematch in Diriyah.
Ruiz Jr. weighed 283 pounds when Joshua beat him in the ring. His new, better self weighed 256 pounds, and the difference in his body was clear to everyone.
Since Ruiz Jr. kept his t-shirt on at the weigh-in for the Joshua rematch, it’s hard to make side-by-side comparisons, but the images from the fight are still very telling, so check them out:
Personal Life
Ruiz is a resident of Imperial, California, where he was born and raised. He graduated from Imperial High School in 2007. Ruiz believes himself to be both American and Mexican, and he identifies as belonging to both countries: “America is one of the world’s great nations. I consider myself to be both American and Mexican. This is my home.
And because I know that Mexicans are all about hard work and dedication, it bothers me when I hear how many people describe us.” He speaks Spanish and English with ease.
