Can Andy Ruiz Jr. pull off another upset against Anthony Joshua? Let’s discuss!

Andy Ruiz Jr. pulled off one of the biggest upsets in boxing history when he bested Anthony Joshua on short notice earlier this year, acquiring all four of the heavyweight’s titles in the process. Six months later, the pair are set to meet for their rematch at Diriyah Arena in Saudi Arabia.

The WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, and IBO heavyweight titles will be on the line, all owned by Ruiz after he took them off Joshua.

It’s certainly the biggest rematch we’ve seen in a long time, and we started the year not even imagining the two would ever face off. Ruiz had a fine record, but he wasn’t talked about as a potential opponent for Joshua until the champion started running out of them.

Ruiz was a late replacement for Jarrell Miller — who failed a drug test — about a month before the June 1 bout, and he came in as an 11-1 underdog. Nobody gave him much of a chance, but he absolutely blew the roof off of Madison Square Garden when he responded to being knocked down in the third round (for the first time in his career) by dropping Joshua twice.

He would go on to put Joshua on the ground two more times in the seventh round, causing the referee to wave off the fight. That gave Ruiz the TKO victory and Joshua the first professional loss of his career.

Comparisons to Buster Douglas over Mike Tyson and Hasim Rahman over Lennox Lewis were immediate and widespread. Not only had he just pulled off a huge upset, Ruiz became the first heavyweight champion of Mexican heritage.

Joshua was gracious in defeat, saying Ruiz was “the better man” the night of their first match. Ruiz celebrated like someone who had no idea they were going to be fighting for a heavyweight title a month prior, endearing himself to a host of new fans in the process.

But everyone knew the rematch was coming. You can’t have an upset like that end with one bout.

Joshua’s team triggered the contractual rematch shortly after the bout. Both fighters took a big payday by holding the fight in Saudi Arabia, which should be outside both of their comfort zones.

Joshua believes he’s the better boxer, and wants his chance to get his career back on track. A single loss can severely hurt a world-class boxer’s career, but avenging that loss is always a good sign. Still, that’s a lot of pressure on Joshua now. Ruiz, on the other hand, is pretty confident.

“We’ve got to see where he’s at because all the pressure is on him,” Ruiz said of Joshua. “The pressure isn’t on me because I followed my dream, made my dreams come true.”

Of course, Ruiz isn’t going to coast along. He is the champion, and now he wants to create a legacy. He believes he has a chance to showcase more of his skills than were on display the first time around.

“t might be a little harder than the first time,” Ruiz said. “I’ve got to show my skills, my talent. I don’t think he’s ever fought a short guy that pressures and is pretty slick. I felt like I was boxing him around even though I was the shorter guy.”

Joshua, on the other hand, seems upset. He’s been getting a lot of heat from fans and experts for his loss, and he doesn’t take kindly to the talk that he was overhyped. He’s been complimentary of Ruiz, but he also seemed to struggle with losing to someone like Ruiz.

“It was a tough pill to swallow,” Joshua said. “I just had to deal with the pain and the issues of taking a loss against what people called a fat guy.”

Joshua has been rather quiet about what exactly went wrong in the first bout, and the steps he’s taking to correct it. He’s been adamant that he has figured it out there.

“For all we know, Ruiz might win,” Joshua said. “But if he doesn’t, I’d know why. That’s all it is. If he doesn’t win, I’ll know why because we’ve corrected everything that I had issues with before.”

Despite losing the first bout, Joshua is still favored in the second bout. He’s not nearly as big a favorite as before, though. At the time of writing, Joshua is sitting at -230, a decent sum but nowhere near the -2500 favorite he was last time around.

Ruiz’s numbers are also fairly dramatic. He is a +165 underdog, while the first bout had him at +1100, according to Draft Kings.

Of course, there are plenty of people out there who still think the first fight was a fluke. Joshua is such a refined, complete boxer that it’s hard to bet against him, even if some people were getting tired of his quality of competition the first time around.

The two together in the ring is almost comical, with Joshua standing at 6-foot-6 with an 82-inch reach. Ruiz is 6-foot-2, much bulkier around the midsection, with a reach that extends just 74 inches. But Ruiz was telling the truth when he said that Joshua has never faced someone like him before.

While Ruiz has occasionally struggled with his weight, he’s always been a sneakily-quick pressure fighter. Joshua doesn’t like getting pressured, and Ruiz is such an awkward person for a man of Joshua’s size to fight, that defending against Ruiz’s inside attack is harder than you’d think.

Ultimately, I don’t think the first bout was a fluke. Ruiz had the right style and the confidence to beat Joshua the first time around, and he absolutely can do it the second time. But Joshua is still Joshua, and him getting things right this time en route to a decision win over Ruiz wouldn’t be surprising, either.

This match is way more interesting than the first bout, and is easily the biggest fight this year.

Date: Dec. 7, 2019

Location: Diriyah Arena, Diriyah, Saudi Arabia

Time: 12 p.m. (Main event at 3:45 p.m. approx)

TV: None (US), Sky UK (UK)

Streaming: DAZN

Heavyweight: Andy Ruiz Jr. vs. Anthony Joshua*
Heavyweight: Alexander Povetkin vs. Michael Hunter
Heavyweight: Dillian Whyte vs. Mariusz Wach
Heavyweight: Filip Hrgovic vs. Eric Molina
Heavyweight: Magomedrasul Majidov vs. Tom Little

*for the WBA (Super), IBF, WBO and IBO heavyweight titles