There was a six month period where Andy Ruiz and Deontay Wilder had all the heavyweight hardware.
Contract-bound plans for both stood in the way of a long-awaited undisputed championship clash, though such a matchup is once again a hot topic, even as they serve as former champions.
Ruiz helped start the conversation after scoring a twelve-round unanimous decision victory over Miami’s Luis Ortiz. Three knockdowns paved the way for the former unified heavyweight champion to win by scores of 114-111, 114-111 and 113-112 atop a Fox Sports Pay-Per-View main event Sunday night from Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
The feat came with Wilder in attendance, six weeks before his own pay-per-view headliner against Robert Helenius on October 15 in Brooklyn, New York. A win by the long-reigning former WBC heavyweight champion could set up a blockbuster showdown in the first quarter of 2023.
“God willing, he wins (against) Robert in October, he and I are in the same organization,” Ruiz told Fox Sports’ Heidi Androl after earning his second straight victory, noting his alliance with Premier Boxing Champions (PBC). “I want to thank Al Haymon. He can make this fight happen. Let’s do it.”
Ruiz (35-2, 22KOs) was never in a position to look for another shot after a historic June 2019 title victory over England’s Anthony Joshua in New York City. His acceptance of a late-notice assignment against the undefeated WBA/IBF/WBO/IBO heavyweight champion carried an automatic rematch clause, which Joshua exercised and avenged to regain the title from him six months later in Saudi Arabia.
Wilder had just completed a repeat knockout of Ortiz (33-3, 28KOs) less than a month before Joshua-Ruiz II, racking up the 10th defense of a WBC title reign that would last more than five years.
He finished in a seventh-round knockout against Tyson Fury in their February 2020 rematch, capping an eight-month stretch in which all heavyweight belts switched from the US to the UK. Wilder suffered an eleventh round knockout against Fury in his epic trilogy. last October, as he will enter the fight with Helenius after a 53-week layoff before the opening bell.
A victory will leave Wilder and Ruiz at one and two in the WBC standings, and apparently with a plan to meet as Fury negotiates an undisputed championship clash with unified champion Oleksandr Usyk (20-0, 13KOs).
“Deontay Wilder’s back. He is always looking for greatness,” Wilder said of that fight. “That’s what he loves to give to the fans. If that’s what comes next, I have to take care of business, but after that, we can continue.”
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
