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Andy Ruiz Jr not worrying about his weight as he prepares to put the pressure on Anthony Joshua again

AFP via Getty Images
AFP via Getty Images

Andy Ruiz was back face-to-face with Anthony Joshua on Wednesday, wearing the same New York Knicks basketball top that he wore before they first boxed in June.

He was smiling too, but then again, Ruiz probably hasn’t stopped smiling since he grabbed Joshua’s world heavyweight titles.

Ruiz’s life changed forever that night at Madison Square Garden. From struggling to find money to pay the gas bill, Ruiz became a multi-millionaire and is making a reported $13 million from the rematch against Joshua in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia, on Saturday.

Since June he has bought a mansion in southern California, a fleet of luxury cars and the jewellery he wears around his neck, wrists and on his fingers is encrusted with diamonds. He was even a guest at Mexico’s “White House”, the Mexican-American having said he was not interested in getting an invitation to the one in Washington DC.

(Action Images via Reuters)
(Action Images via Reuters)

So, no wonder the question he has faced more than any other this week is whether he still has his old hunger, although Manny Robles, his trainer, says that has not been a problem.

“As long as he shows up to the gym every day, he can buy 10 cars and 10 houses,” Robles said. “His upbringing and his parents keep him grounded and let him know what really matters in life. Material things come and go but what really matters is creating a legacy.”

(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)

Ruiz is a tough man to read. He says all the right things, but despite posting online footage early in his training camp claiming that he had slimmed down, he has confessed this week that he may come into this fight heavier than he was for the original.

Many dismissed his casual demeanour prior to the first fight as a feeling he was just happy to be there, though. There will be no taking him lightly a second time.

“My mentality now is just that I have to do it again, I have to do it not to let people down,” Ruiz said. “There is a little bit of pressure but most of the pressure is on him to redeem himself. I’ve got to stay focused, stay disciplined and stick to the gameplan.

“I didn’t want to worry about the weight. Everything I have is for my advantage, I just want to concentrate on the speed. I don’t think he is really good at backing up. The pressure we will bring, the way we have been working on being small, it is going to be hard for him.”

Ruiz was on the floor himself in the third round of their original encounter, before hammering Joshua with a left hook in the same round from which Joshua never recovered. He was on the floor four times before the fight ended in the seventh round.

“This has to be the continuation of the last fight,” Robles said. “This is the eighth round. Seek and destroy. We know we are the underdogs.

“We like the underdog mentality mainly because we've always had our backs against the wall, understanding where we have come from and what we have had to do to get where we are today, it takes a lot of courage and a lot of blood sweat and tears.”

If Ruiz has given up trying to give the impression that he has lost weight; there is no hiding that Joshua has shed some pounds, a fact some are interpreting as a sign that the former champion will try to be more mobile in the ring.

“I don’t know if he is going to try to box me around and beat me on points, but I am a good pressure fighter, an attacker, and I am going to be looking for that knockout,” Ruiz said.

“If he has lost a lot of weight, we don’t know if he will have that same power. I want to be strong, I want to be mentally prepared, we did all the hard work in the gym.”

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