Andy Ruiz Jr dwarfed by opponent as he weighs in at lightest in eight years for return

Andy Ruiz Jr has weighed in at 254.3lbs for his boxing comeback this week.

The 36-year-old has undergone an incredible body transformation ahead of his return against Polish heavyweight Damian Knyba for his first fight in more than two years.

Mark Robinson/Matchroom

On Friday night, Ruiz Jr faces the 6’7″ sparring partner of Anthony Joshua at Newark’s Prudential Center.

It will be the first time the former unified heavyweight champion has stepped through the ropes since a majority draw with Jarrell Miller in August 2024, when he weighed 274.5lbs.

Ruiz Jr had previously tipped the scales at 268.8lbs and 256lbs for victories over Luis Ortiz and Chris Arreola, respectively.

Prior to those bouts, ‘The Destroyer’ was 283.5lbs for his rematch loss to Joshua, having weighed 268lbs for their famous first fight in June 2019, when he shocked the world to become WBA ‘super’, IBF, and WBO world champion.

After reuniting with longtime coach Manny Robles last year, Ruiz Jr revealed this week that he had dropped a whopping 43lbs heading into his fight against Knyba after ballooning to over 300lbs.

And the Mexican-American hit the scales properly on Thursday, coming in at 254.3lbs.

His opponent, Knyba, who unsurprisingly towered over Ruiz Jr when the pair came face-to-face, weighed in at 255.5lbs.

It is the lightest Ruiz Jr has been since defeating Kevin Johnson in July 2018, when he weighed 252lbs.

His new promoter, Eddie Hearn, briefly joined the DAZN broadcast for the live weigh-in show to discuss the return of the man he thinks can ‘shake up the heavyweight division.’

“Let’s be honest, there’s no point hanging around,” Hearn said in response to those questioning throwing Ruiz Jr straight in with the threat that is Knyba.

Hearn added that Ruiz Jr is ‘entitled to take an easier opponent’ due to his accolades as a heavyweight boxer, but ‘you either still have it or you don’t.’

“We’re going to find out whether he still has it or not,” the Matchroom Boxing promoter said.

“This is the perfect guy to show what Andy Ruiz still has left.”

Speaking to talkSPORT in July, Ruiz Jr explained how his reunion with trainer Robles, who inspired his upset over Joshua in 2019, acted as a major factor in his decision to return to boxing.

“My whole team that made me a champion, they showed me the hard work.

“We split apart and I started training myself and started trying to take an easy route.

Getty

“But now we are back together — the team is stronger than ever. We are clicking and bonding and the hard work is being done.

“That is arguably the biggest reason I came back and why things will be different because of the training.”

Ruiz Jr plans to become a two-time heavyweight world champion and specifically highlighted his desire to claim the WBC and Ring Magazine belts.

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