Apr 30, 2021
Andy Ruiz was broken. It was last spring, months after his lopsided decision defeat to Anthony Joshua. Ruiz, a doughy 283 pounds for his rematch with Joshua, now weighed more than 300. His confidence was gone. His spirit was shaken. “I felt empty inside,” Ruiz says. One night, Ruiz dropped to his knees. He had already apologized to his friends and family for blowing his chance to defend the heavyweight titles he took off Joshua. Now he needed to speak to God.
“I was so depressed, so sad, and I started praying,” says Ruiz. “And I was like, ‘Man, God, I m sorry for not doing the right things. I m sorry for not following your orders.’ I made a promise to Him and I told Him that I was going to do the right things again.”
Look past the dire Floyd Mayweather vs Logan Paul pay-per-view and Showtime have a good roster of upcoming fights
Beyond Floyd Mayweather s strange mooted outing, PBC get busy with a solid TV schedule on Showtime
SHOWTIME have announced a dreary exhibition of retired boxer versus Youtuber, putting Floyd Mayweather together with Logan Paul for a June 6 pay-per-view in Miami. It continues the worrying trend of novelty boxing.
But beyond that, Showtime nevertheless do have a good roster of actual fights coming up. Even as the sport waits and hopes for the biggest fight, Anthony Joshua vs Tyson Fury to actually get made, Premier Boxing Champions and Showtime have announced a solid schedule that proves there’s more to life than the heavyweight division.
Arum: Pacquiao-Crawford is Dead Over Money Woes 64 64 comments
The prospect of a Manny Pacquiao-Terence Crawford fight is dead, Top Rank chairman Bob Arum told BoxingScene.
Arum said there was deal agreed to for Crawford to defend his WBO welterweight world title against Pacquiao, the all-time great eight-division world champion, on June 5 in the main event of an ESPN pay-per-view event from Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.
Arum said the terms had been agreed to but that the money that was supposed to be put up by a specific deadline was not.
“Look, what happened to us in Abu Dhabi was we had signed contracts and everything and they were supposed to put up the money,” Arum said to BoxingScene.com. “Well, I’ve been waiting two weeks for the money. Nobody put up the money after promising they would.
Ryan Hafey/Premier Boxing Champions
This Saturday night, FOX and Premier Boxing Champions are back on pay-per-view for Andy Ruiz Jr’s comeback fight against Chris Arreola.
The decision to put the show on PPV has been hugely unpopular, and while probably not as simple a call as some might think, the bottom line for fans is that the show is $50 to watch.
Is it worth it? Is there enough reason for a fight fan to fork over the cash?
The Main Event
The matchup between Ruiz (33-2, 22 KO) and Arreola (38-6-1, 33 KO) has been sold largely on Ruiz losing 30 pounds since we last saw him in the ring, when he was pretty awful and horribly out of shape for his rematch loss to Anthony Joshua in Dec. 2019 in Saudi Arabia.
Photo by Yong Teck Lim/Getty Images
Premier Boxing Champions has revealed the full lineup for this Saturday’s Andy Ruiz Jr vs. Chris Arreola prelims, which notably feature hard-luck welterweight slugger Adrian Granados and former heavyweight Olympian Oscar Negron.
Per the press release, “[p]ortions of the undercard will be broadcast for free on the FOX Sports app and FOXsports.com starting at 4:40pm ET/1:40 p.m. PT. The undercard feed will also be made available to the PBC on FOX YouTube, Twitter and Facebook pages.”
Granados (21-8-2, 15 KO), who bounced back from his latest highly questionable decision loss to Robert Easter Jr. by crushing a local can in February, meets Jose Luis Sanchez (11-1, 4 KO) in an eight-rounder. Sanchez hasn’t been booked past six rounds since losing an eight-rounder in his third pro fight back in 2013 and his current streak includes nobody of note, so I don’t think Granados has to worry about losing another close one.