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To the surprise of nobody, Andy Ruiz Jr. and Anthony Joshua will be running it back later this year. Eddie Hearn today announced that he would be utilizing the contracted rematch clause to pit the two against one another this winter.
After meetings with AJ, Rob Mc and the management team in NY, we have today triggered the contracted rematch clause with Andy Ruiz Jnr. The fight will take place in Nov/Dec at a venue to be confirmed shortly.
— Eddie Hearn (@EddieHearn) June 4, 2019
Last Saturday’s result was about as definitive as it gets, but there are still plenty of promotional angles for Matchroom and co. to take, most notably Joshua’s (22-1, 21 KO) ill-advised flurry after the initial knockdown and the recent reports that he suffered a knockout from Joey Dawejko while sparring. Hearn, for his part, has denied the sparring allegations and asserted that Joshua entered the ring with “no issue at all.”
Even with the tinge of intrigue, it’s admittedly a risky move. Sergey Kovalev made the most of his immediate rematch with Eleider Alvarez, but we also saw fellow Next Great British Heavyweight (tm) David Price crater after his rematch with Tony Thompson and just recently watched Isaac Dogboe take a profound beating while trying to avenge his first career defeat. Picking up the pieces after two hard losses is exponentially harder than doing it with one.