{"id":689828,"date":"2026-01-11T22:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T22:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/689828\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T22:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T22:56:10","slug":"andy-ruiz-jr-made-heavyweight-legend-consider-retirement-after-one-sparring-session","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/689828\/","title":{"rendered":"Andy Ruiz Jr Made Heavyweight Legend Consider Retirement After One Sparring Session"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former unified heavyweight champion Andy Ruiz<\/a> once pushed a boxing legend to the brink of retirement after a brutal sparring session.<\/p>\n

The 36-year-old from California is perhaps best known for his monumental stoppage victory over Britain\u2019s Anthony Joshua back in June of 2019. <\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018The Destroyer\u2019 stopped Joshua in the seventh round of their showdown at the iconic Madison Square Garden in New York City to capture the unified WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight titles in one of the biggest upsets of all time.<\/p>\n

Ruiz has made just four ring appearances since then however, losing his titles to \u2018AJ\u2019 in their rematch just a few months later. He was last in action back in August of 2024 when he fought to a majority draw against countryman Jarrell \u2018Big Baby\u2019 Miller at the BMO Stadium in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

Much of Ruiz\u2019s success is said to be down to his experience in sparring a number of highly-rated heavyweights over the years, including former undisputed heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield<\/a>, who sparred \u2018The Destroyer\u2019 when he was just 19-years-old.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Pro Boxing Fans, \u2018The Real Deal\u2019 admitted that he knew his time in the sport was up when he sparred a younger Ruiz all those years ago.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWhen I sparred that guy Ruiz, and when he was 19-years-old, he was able to tag me, I knew then. I don\u2019t pass my age range where it no longer makes sense to get hit like that by somebody you think you should be able to beat, because experience and all this, but he had speed and I was losing speed.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Holyfield\u2019s final ring appearance as a professional came in May of 2011 when he stopped Brian Nielsen in the 10th round of their bout in Denmark. He did make a brief return to the sport in 2021 however although he was knocked out in the opening round of his exhibition clash with MMA legend Vitor Belfort.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former unified heavyweight champion Andy Ruiz once pushed a boxing legend to the brink of retirement after a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":689829,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4108],"tags":[1935,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-689828","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115878938895545591","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=689828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/689829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}