Former unified heavyweight champion Tyson Fury has questioned the commitment of IBF, WBA and WBO heavyweight champion Andy Ruiz Jr.
The 29-year-old Mexican-American champion has been soaking up the media attention following his shock win over Anthony Joshua in June.
Ruiz Jr recovered from a third-round knockdown to have the Brit on the canvas four times before knocking him out in seven rounds at Madison Square Garden.
The rematch is set down for Diriyah in Saudi Arabia on December 7, but the Ruiz Jr camp are yet to sign on citing concerns about the lack of a local boxing commission.
Fury, 31, who is in camp preparing for his September fight with Otto Wallin, refused to give prediction on the fight but said he wasn’t sold on Ruiz Jr as champion.
“I’d like to give you a prediction, but the thing is we don’t know how Ruiz is training. We don’t know how this newfound fame and newfound fortune have changed the man’s life,” Fury said during ESPN’s boxing telecast on Saturday.
“Is Andy Ruiz Jr the second coming of Buster Douglas… had his big shot and didn’t back it up in the rematch? We’ll never know and until he’s in there.”
Buster Douglas famously dethroned undisputed heavyweight champion Mike Tyson by 10th round knockout in Japan in 1990.
Despite the 40-1 underdog becoming the first man to beat Tyson, he was unable to regain the form he showed that night, losing the world championship to Evander Holyfield by KO3 in his very first title defence.
“Until [Ruiz Jr] starts showing us that he’s going to take it seriously and be in the gym and train and stop living like a movie star or a superstar because he won one fight…I know he’s not training right now,” Fury added.
The self-styled ‘Gypsy King’ delivered a backhanded compliment to arch-nemesis Deontay Wilder, who will defend his WBC heavyweight title against Luis Ortiz in November.
“Ortiz is 49 years old. He’s on his last legs. I think Wilder does him inside of six rounds,” he said.