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Andy Ruiz Jr fires back at Anthony Joshua over rematch venue

Published

5 years ago

August 6, 2019

Andy Ruiz Jr has hit back at Anthony Joshua’s wish for their rematch to be held in the UK as negotiations over the location of the fight continue.

The Mexican shocked Joshua in New York to claim the IBF, WBA and WBO heavyweight titles.
But a rematch clause was invoked for later this year with the location the only issue left to be sorted.

Joshua earlier told Sky Sports News: “Ruiz, I’ve seen he’s done a lot of talking about what he wants, but he don’t call the shots in that sense, it’s a team effort.

“It’s fine, I don’t mind fighting him in America, I’ve done it before, and I’d love to fight here because I had no reason to go in the first place.

“I went there off my own back, so for the rematch now, I would love it to be in Cardiff, however, [if] it’s going to be on neutral ground, Ruiz is the champ, we’ll kind of make some calls as well in that situation.

“But I’m going to battle for it to be in the UK, because it’s my stomping ground. I done one out there, so let’s do the rematch here. I think it will be amazing before the year is out and I’ll definitely be having a lovely New Year’s with my family.

“You’ve got two ends of it. There’s one, I’d fight in Tijuana and Ruiz’s uncle could be the referee and I would still whoop him. It don’t matter to me where it is, there’s that aspect, but then there’s the other aspect of the British fans that have been riding with me from day one want to see me get them belts back.

“Walking out in Cardiff in front of 70, 80, 90,000 people screaming and rooting for you to win, that type of energy that goes through your body is unstoppable, and I think that could give me that little bit of edge I need to win those belts.”

In response, Ruiz Jr tweeted: “AJ says he can ‘whoop’ me in Tijuana prove it let’s run it in Mexico. Remember that you did have a huge reason to come to America and that was to build your profile.”