A little over a month ago, Andy Ruiz Jr made his PBC debut against Alexander Dimitrenko. His weight and appearance has always been a key topic with his career, and through fight week, there were multiple comments made about how Ruiz had a new chef, he?d be in better condition, and PBC mic-holders repeatedly commented how he looked in such better shape compared to the past.
Then he stepped on the scales and weighed in at 262 pounds, his highest weight since a Dec. 2014 fight against Siarhei Liakhovich.
But he looked good against Dimitrenko, got the win, and then went after a June 1 slot against Anthony Joshua. Eventually, he got that, and the story has been largely about his physique once again, even before he was officially announced as Joshua?s replacement opponent.
Ruiz was coming off a camp, going right into another one, talked about being in great shape a lot, how staying so active would help.
Then he stepped on the scales today and weighed in at 268 pounds, his highest weight since an Oct. 2014 fight against Kenny Lemos.
The story is a familiar one, even if you think back just to Chris Arreola, another Mexican-American heavyweight whose scale readings were a big story in his career. Arreola?s weight had been questioned a lot, then he weighed in at 251 to fight Vitali Klitschko and got dominated. So he made a big deal about how he was going to get serious and bring the weight down. Two-and-a-half months later, Arreola weighed in at 263 for a fight against Brian Minto.
So it is what it is. Ruiz (32-1, 21 KO) weighs what he weighs, he?s the fighter that he is.
Joshua (22-0, 21 KO), who is four inches taller than Ruiz and will have an eight-inch reach advantage on Saturday, came in at 247?, a little higher than his last couple of fights but right in the area of what he usually weighs.
Callum Smith (25-0, 18 KO) will defend his WBA super middleweight title against Hassan N?Dam (37-3, 21 KO). Smith weighed in at 167? with N?Dam at 166, both below the 168-pound limit.
Katie Taylor (13-0, 6 KO) and Delfine Persoon (43-1, 18 KO) meet to fully unify the 135-pound division. Taylor weighed in at 134? with Persoon at 130?, and my first thought was that maybe Persoon overtrained, as you almost never see someone come in that far under the limit for a world title fight. But on a closer (read: actual) look, she?s weighed in at 129? and 131 for her last two fights, so maybe this is just where she feels at her best.
Here are the rest of the undercard weights:
Josh Kelly 146? vs Ray Robinson 146 Joshua Buatsi 174 vs Marco Antonio Periban 172 Chris Algieri 139? vs Tommy Coyle 139? Souleymane Cissokho 156? vs Vladimir Hernandez 162 Austin Williams 159? vs Quadeer Jenkins 161? Diego Pacheco 164? vs Jared Chauvin 163
