Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn went through all the trouble of holding a press conference this week to officially announce that the heavyweight rematch between Andy Ruiz Jr. and Anthony Joshua was set for December 7th in Saudi Arabia, but only for Ruiz to later come out on social media to suggest that’s not really the case.
During an Instagram live video that Ruiz streamed, he said the following:
“I know everybody’s talking about the fight and all but we got the real news coming soon,” said Ruiz. “The fight is going to happen soon. I’m trying to give hope, give motivation to all my people.
“Of course. It’s going to be on my terms, our terms. We’re going to bring it back here in the United States.”
Those statements are obviously in direct contrast to what Hearn formally announced, and Hearn hit back at Ruiz’s comments, saying they have a signed contract with Ruiz and he’s either going to play ball and earn a lot of money, or sit on the shelf and litigate this whole thing out for years to come.
“His choice is to have a legal battle that could put him out of boxing for years, or to defend his belts for a lot of money against a guy he has already beaten. There isn’t any doubt he will take the fight.
“Any messing around and Ruiz Jr will lose belts, and he won’t want to do that.”
Something tells me this isn’t the last we’re going to hear on the subject. We’ll keep you posted on how things progress...