Former unified heavyweight champion Andy ‘The Destroyer’ Ruiz Jr 34-2 (22) had to climb off the mat to defeat former world title challenger Chris ‘The Nightmare’ Arreola 38-7-1 (33) at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California on Saturday night.
Ruiz started the fight aggressively, charging at Arreola and throwing quickfire combinations. But the tactic played into Arreola’s hands as he landed a short right hand that sent Ruiz to the canvas in the second round.
“He got me with a good clean right hand in the second round,” the 31-year-old Ruiz said later. “I was too overconfident and dropped my hand a bit. Hats off to him. We just kept pushing and pushing. I switched up and started focusing on counterpunching and working the body.
“I felt a little rust and I know other fighters can relate to that. If he wants to run it back, we’ll run it back with him.”
The first half of the bout was competitive with Arreola appearing to stun Ruiz on more than one occasion. But as the former WBA, WBO and IBF champion switched his attack to the body and turned to counterpunching he had more success.
Ruiz took over the contest done the stretch, using his speed to dictate the exchanges and outland Arreola. The judges saw the fight for Ruiz by a wide margin but it didn’t reflect the competitiveness of the fight. The scores were 118-109, 118-109 and 117-110, all for Ruiz.
The almost 4,000 strong crowd was not happy with the result.
“You know, Chris Arreola, he’s a veteran,” Ruiz said. “He’s a hard puncher and, you know, we did what we had to do. We won the victory. But remember, I was the lowest of the lowest and I had to come back to the ladder.
“Yup, keep booing, bro. It’s all good. But like I said, we did what we gotta do. And thanks to God that we got this victory and now to the next.”
Arreola, 40, expressed his disgust at the scoring in no uncertain terms.
“I respect the judges, but I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” he said. “He might have won, but don’t tell me I only won two or three rounds.
“I got hit in the shoulder and it kind of threw it off. It wasn’t a big deal though. It’s a part of boxing. I didn’t take too much punishment. I’m ready to run it back with Andy.”
According to CompuBox, Ruiz outlanded Arreola in all but the second and third frames although often by only a few punches.
Ruiz had the edge over the last six rounds with 98 connects compared to 58 for Arreola. Ruiz landed 44.5% of his power punches and landed 161 punches overall to Arreola’s 109.
One interested observer was former world title challenger Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz 32-2 (27).
“The fight was good, it was really interesting,” said Luis Ortiz to FightHype. “[Ruiz] now has the opportunity.
“I’ll wait for his decision and Kong is right here. I came to watch him, wished him good luck in the fight. He knows I want to fight.
“The [Ruiz vs. Arreola] fight was really close. I’m here waiting for Junior. I‘ll wait, and I’ll be ready for whatever may come. I’m ready for this.”
