Andy Ruiz Jr vows to continue fighting after defeat to Damian Knyba
The lights were familiar. The stage was familiar. The man in the ring was not.
Seven years after shaking the sport to its core by flattening Anthony Joshua at Madison Square Garden, Andy Ruiz Jr stepped through the ropes in nearby Newark looking for a fresh start. Instead, he walked out with a unanimous points defeat, a bruised ego, and a blunt reminder of how far he has slipped from those dizzy heights.
At 36, in just his fourth outing since losing the Joshua rematch in December 2019, Ruiz looked like a faded echo of the whirlwind who once tore through heavyweight boxing. Damian Knyba, taller, sharper and far more active, took full advantage.
The Polish heavyweight, now 18-1, boxed with discipline at the Prudential Center, survived Ruiz’s sporadic bursts, and banked the rounds. By the time the final bell sounded, the scorecards told a clear story: 117-110, 114-113, 114-113 in Knyba’s favour.
It could have been worse for Ruiz.
In the seventh, the former unified world champion crashed to the canvas, dropped heavily and scrambling to rise as the seconds bled away. The bell rescued him from further punishment, the sound as much a relief as a warning. For a moment, it looked less like a comeback and more like a farewell.
Ruiz refused to see it that way.
He argued that Knyba’s spoiling tactics blunted his work, that the holding smothered his best weapons and stopped him from unleashing the combinations that once made him the division’s most dangerous counterpuncher.
"I don't know, I think it was just him holding," Ruiz said afterwards, still breathing hard, still defiant. "Every time I tried to come in, he'd hold me really tight, and I just couldn't let my combinations go. He played a good game plan, but I'd love to run it back and do things a lot different."
The Mexican-American, who recently linked up with British promoter Eddie Hearn, leaned on another explanation too: rust. This was his first fight since a draw with Jarrell Miller in August 2024, and the inactivity showed in heavy legs and hesitant attacks.
"It was just a long layoff, and it was a great opponent," he said. "I didn't want to take an easy fight, so that's why I took Damian. He's a big guy. But we've got to take risks. I've still got it in me, man. I've just got to stay active and I want to fight again."
The risk was obvious from the opening rounds. Knyba, with youth and momentum on his side, fought like a man chasing his breakthrough win. Ruiz, by contrast, fought like a man trying to remember how it used to feel. There were flashes – a fast counter here, a short hook there – but the sustained pressure, the relentless hand speed that once overwhelmed Joshua, never arrived.
The judges saw a competitive fight but not a confusing one. Knyba’s jab, size and work rate did enough. Ruiz’s name and history could not drag him over the line.
Yet even as the result sank in, the former champion’s instinct was to demand another chance. No talk of retirement, no quiet acceptance. Just the stubborn belief that time, activity and a second crack at Knyba can drag him back into contention.
Whether the heavyweight division still has room for that belief is another question entirely.
