The highly anticipated rematch between IBF, WBA and WBO heavyweight champion Andy Ruiz Jr and Anthony Joshua will definitely go ahead, according to the Mexican-American’s trainer Manny Robles.
Late last week Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn announced that the return bout would take place in Saudi Arabia on December 7 however the Ruiz’s team have remained conspicuously silent amid rumours the champion is holding out for a larger slice of the financial pie.
“You haven’t heard anything from Andy Ruiz and there’s a reason why,” Robles told FightHype.
“You’ve got the promoter going out on a limb saying we’re fighting December 7 in Saudi Arabia, but you haven’t heard anything from Andy.
“Everybody has to hold off and wait.”
Ruiz Jr caused a boilover in June when he had short-priced favourite Joshua on the canvas four times at Madison Square Garden en route to scoring a seventh-round knockout.
The newly crowned champion has repeatedly said he isn’t willing to travel to the UK for the rematch although it’s understood he has little say in the location of the bout as per the terms of the rematch clause in the initial contract for the Joshua fight.
Robles dismissed any possibility of the fight not taking place.
“At the end of the day we’re willing to fight anywhere. That’s what a true champion does,” Robles said.
“If we gotta go to Wales or England or in this case Saudi Arabia, we gotta do what we gotta do…
“We knew it from day one. It’s what we signed up for. There was a rematch clause that of course, if we won, we would have to give Anthony Joshua the immediate rematch.
“We’ve gotta go by what the contact says and obviously we’re gonna give him the rematch because that’s what we signed up for.”
