Ruiz reportedly in talks for comeback fight.
When all is said and done, Andy Ruiz Jr. will likely go down as one of the biggest what-ifs in heavyweight boxing history. Of course, no matter what, his career will always be defined by what he did one night in June of 2019.
It was on that night that Ruiz gave Anthony Joshua a not-very-warm welcome to America, clattering him to the canvas on multiple occasions and stopping the Englishman to snatch from him the unified crown.
The result was so unexpected that it is often directly compared to Mike Tyson’s upset loss to Buster Douglas, and there are certainly a few parallels between Douglas and Ruiz.
Most notably, both men came in overweight for the fight immediately after their greatest triumph and lost the championship with little resistance. Only, in Ruiz’s case, it was to the same man he won it from.
And in the 7 years since the Joshua rematch, Ruiz has fought a total of three times, the last of those being a draw to Jarrell Miller that many observers believe he should have lost.
That was almost two years ago, and after a lot of rumours and theorising, we now have news that the American will be returning this year.
Reportedly, he is in very deep discussions to return on the 4th of September in Newark, New Jersey. His opponent is set to be Damian Knyba, a 6’7″ Polish operator who lost early this year to Agit Kabayel.
Complete with an 86-inch reach, Knyba does not seem like the type of opponent you will want to fight after a long period out of the ring. However, that just makes this matchup more interesting.
Andy Ruiz Jr and Damian Knyba are in advanced talks for a fight on September 4th in Newark, New Jersey sources told The Ring’s @MikeCoppinger. pic.twitter.com/agBE1OB5c3
— InsideRingShow (@InsideRingShow) July 6, 2026
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