Mexican-American Heavyweight contender and former unified world champion, Andy Ruiz, is now a free agent after a mutual agreement between his team and the PBC to terminate his contract, according to his father Andy Ruiz Sr. in an interview with ESPN Knockout.
‘The Destroyer’, as Andy Ruiz Jr. is also known as was supposedly in the midst of contract talks with Filip Hrgovic in a fight where he and the Croatian were mandated to fight each other in. The winner of that bout would win the interim title for the IBF Heavyweight belt, and subsequently become the mandatory challenger to the holder of the IBF title currently held by unified Heavyweight champion, Oleksandr Usyk.
The potential bout between the two Heavyweight contenders will no longer commence however, with Ruiz Sr.’s recent revelation of his free agent status and hints that he would fight Deontay Wilder instead, with that fight offering a higher margin of money to be earned and further prospects to fight the current WBC Heavyweight champion, Tyson Fury. Though the IBF has yet to announce the cancellation of the ordered bout between Ruiz Jr. and Hrgovic, it has been reported that Ruiz has withdrawn from the negotiations entirely.
While the IBF seemed intent on having the fight between Ruiz and Hrgovic occur, even to the point of their talks extending towards purse bids with an auction supposed to be held on February 28th. Now the talks have said to be fully canceled as Ruiz Jr. looks to pursue a fight with Wilder.
Filip Hrgovic has now been left in a relative state of limbo in the division as the IBF will likely look to find a new opponent they can match up with Hrgovic to potentially set up another interim title bout. The pool of potential challengers is quite thin however, with the next highest-rated fighters on the IBF rankings, Deontay Wilder and Anthony Joshua – ranked as the #4 and #5 respectively, unlikely to be available to fight Hrgovic with the former being rumored to fight Andy Ruiz Jr. instead, and Joshua slated to fight Jermaine Franklin on April 1st.
Martin Bakole, Frank Sanchez, Agit Kabayel, Tony Yoka and Dillian Whyte, ranked from #6 to #10 are now the most prospective opponents for Hrgovic to face, though it is still unknown if the IBF will commence with their plans to make the IBF Heavyweight interim title available. Prior to their announcement of Hrgovic and Ruiz fighting for the mandatory position, there had been no attempts by the IBF to create a mandatory challenger for its previous belt holder, Anthony Joshua.
In the meantime, Andy Ruiz Jr. will look to capitalize on his free agent status to likely pursue the best fights he can. With a Wilder fight still on the cards, there is a good chance that he will not only be able to make a higher payday fighting him – as opposed to fighting Hrgovic – but he can also gain the opportunity to face the Heavyweight holder of the WBC belt, Tyson Fury, if he manages to defeat Wilder. Wilder and Ruiz Jr. were already expected to face each other with the winner slated to become the mandatory challenger to the WBC Heavyweight title, but talks seemed to collapse after Wilder’s own revelation of being a free agent himself and heavily entertaining a fight with former UFC Heavyweight champion, Francis Ngannou.
With Wilder and Ngannou having reached a stage where there are at least discussions taking place, it is safe to conclude that any such bout will commence after he fights Andy Ruiz Jr. Though there has been some confusion on who exactly Wilder has been talking to as he has been unwilling to share any details on the matter, Ruiz Jr’s actions and his father’s recent interview seems to point to negotiations behind the scenes between their team and Wilder’s that will eventually spur an official announcement of their bout, from either of the two parties in the next couple of weeks.
