It was easy work for Andy Ruiz Jr. on Fox tonight, dominating a seemingly disinterested Alexander Dimitrenko until the latter’s corner pulled the plug.
Dimitrenko (41-5, 26 KO) brought back memories of his stomping by Joseph Parker in 2016, essentially sleepwalking through the fight while the much shorter Ruiz Jr. (32-1, 21 KO) simply walked into the pocket and went to work with quick combinations. Ruiz repeatedly punished the body and changed levels nicely, while Dimitrenko was limited to jabs and a counter right he didn’t throw nearly enough.
Dimitrenko trainer Sebastian Zbik was honest with his charge, criticizing him for his lack of and after Dimitrenko got repeatedly hurt in the fifth round, Zbik and co. elected to pull the plug.
Dimitrenko landed 21 punches overall compared to 68 from Ruiz Jr.
The big man clearly has power, as seen by his upset of Adrian Granat and knockdown of Bryant Jennings, but I really don’t want to see him in the ring again if he’s this unwilling to really fight.