Andy Ruiz’s comeback: why the Knyba fight is no soft return

Andy Ruiz’s comeback: why the Knyba fight is no soft return

Andy Ruiz Jr has spent seven years living in the shadow of one night. That is what happens when you shock Anthony Joshua at Madison Square Garden, win three world titles, and become the first heavyweight champion of Mexican descent. The upset was enormous. It was also so spectacular that it has made every quieter performance since feel like a disappointment.

On Friday 4 September, Ruiz returns against Damian Knyba at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. It is his first fight under a new Matchroom deal, headlining a card available on DAZN in the UK. The bout is official, not a speculative matchmaking exercise, as Matchroom’s event page confirms.

It would be easy to dismiss Knyba as a return opponent. Do not.

Ruiz is 36, has not boxed since his August 2024 majority draw with Jarrell Miller, and faces a 6ft 7in heavyweight who is younger, local to the venue and physically built to make a shorter boxer work for every inch. This is not a harmless appearance designed solely to get Ruiz’s name back into the results column. It is a proper technical question: can Ruiz still solve a tall, active heavyweight over rounds without needing one explosive moment to change the fight?

Ruiz has not had a normal career since Joshua

The record still looks impressive. Ruiz is 35-2-1 with 22 knockouts, and he has never been stopped. Box.Live’s profile lists his last outing as the 12-round draw with Miller on 3 August 2024, following decision wins over Luis Ortiz and Chris Arreola.

But the gaps matter.

After the Joshua rematch in December 2019, Ruiz has fought only three times. He survived an early knockdown to beat Arreola on points in 2021. He dropped Ortiz three times but still had to go the distance in 2022. Then came the Miller draw. By the time he meets Knyba, he will have completed another lay-off of more than two years.

That is not simply a question of freshness. Heavyweights can remain dangerous late into their thirties, especially ones with Ruiz’s hands. The issue is whether the timing, conditioning and willingness to apply pressure are still there for a full fight.

Ruiz’s great strength has never been one single haymaker. Yes, he can punch. But against Joshua in 2019, the decisive quality was how quickly he recognised an opening, fired back in combination and kept punching after the first shot landed. He was compact, balanced and frighteningly fast at close quarters.

The problem is that all of those advantages require him to get close first.

Knyba has the dimensions to make it awkward

Knyba arrives with a 17-1 record and 11 stoppages. He is Polish-born, New Jersey-based and, crucially, stands 6ft 7in. Bad Left Hook’s fight report also lists him at around 260lb.

Those numbers do not win fights on their own. Plenty of tall heavyweights give away their height by standing square, falling in behind their jab or forgetting to use their feet. But when a boxer of Knyba’s size works behind a disciplined lead hand, keeps his right hand ready and makes the smaller opponent restart his entries, he can turn a contest into a long and frustrating night.

Knyba is coming off his first professional defeat, a third-round stoppage against Agit Kabayel in January in an interim WBC title contest. That result will tempt some to treat him as damaged goods. That would be careless analysis.

Kabayel is one of the division’s most awkward pressure fighters and a specialist at getting underneath tall opponents to attack the body. His performance against Knyba offers a route for Ruiz, but it does not mean Ruiz can reproduce it automatically. Ruiz has faster hands than Kabayel, but he is not the same relentless body-first pressure fighter. He has to find his own way in.

The contest is also taking place at a familiar venue for Knyba. Boxing Insider reported that this will be his fourth professional appearance at Prudential Center. Ruiz is the bigger name, but Knyba is not walking into a hostile away assignment.

This is the real test: can Ruiz build his way in?

The lazy version of this preview says Ruiz must get inside. Of course he must. That is not analysis. The question is how.

Against a taller orthodox fighter, Ruiz needs to avoid entering in the obvious straight line. Walking forward with his head on the centre line, waiting for a clean right hand, would play directly into Knyba’s range. He needs to use his lead hand as a tool, not merely a guard: touch the chest, disrupt the jab, feint the entry and make Knyba reset his feet.

The body is vital, but Ruiz cannot just fling wide hooks downstairs from too far away. Knyba will be looking to lean back, take a half-step away and meet him with the uppercut or right hand. Ruiz’s best route is to enter after Knyba throws, then stay compact enough to punch before the taller man can clinch or regain range.

There is a useful distinction here. Ruiz does not need to throw more punches in every minute. He needs to win the exchanges that matter and make Knyba feel that every jab carries a cost.

A strong early round for Ruiz might not contain a knockdown. It might simply feature him slipping outside the jab, landing to the body, finishing with a short hook upstairs and stepping out before Knyba can tie him up. Repeat that enough and the 6ft 7in frame becomes less imposing. Knyba’s jab shortens. His feet slow. His clinches become desperate rather than tactical.

That is heavyweight boxing at its most practical.

The Manny Robles reunion matters, but only if it shows in the ring

Ruiz has reunited with Manny Robles, the trainer in his corner for the first Joshua fight. Sports Illustrated reported that the reunion comes after Ruiz’s time working under Freddie Roach at Wild Card.

It is a sensible move on paper. Robles knows the version of Ruiz that shocked the division: mobile feet, sharp combinations and a fighter prepared to turn a small opening into a damaging sequence. Familiarity can help a boxer returning after inactivity.

Still, a trainer reunion is not a magic spell. The corner can give the right instruction, but the fighter has to have the legs to carry it out in rounds seven, eight and nine. Ruiz’s most concerning recent performances have not suggested a lack of talent. They have suggested that he can become too patient, too static and too reliant on the idea that his hands will eventually rescue him.

Against Knyba, that approach is dangerous.

If Ruiz gives away the first half of the fight while waiting for a dramatic opening, he could find himself several rounds down against a man with the reach to keep the contest tidy. He needs purposeful pressure from the opening bell, but intelligent pressure rather than a chase.

Why Knyba is not a soft return

A soft return is usually an opponent chosen to make a fighter look good: limited ambition, little punch resistance, no stylistic threat, no realistic chance of winning rounds. Knyba does not fit that description.

He has a recent loss, yes. But he also has youth, size, punching power, home-region support and the exact dimensions that have historically created problems for shorter heavyweights. The fight is scheduled for 10 rounds, not four or six. That asks Ruiz to demonstrate more than a sharp first round.

It is also a serious opportunity for Knyba. Beating a former unified champion, even one returning from a long lay-off, changes a heavyweight’s profile immediately. Ruiz knows that. He cannot afford to treat this as a tune-up because Knyba will not treat it as one.

The official fight listing has Ruiz at 35-2-1 and Knyba at 17-1, with the fight set for Newark on 4 September. See the Matchroom card and DAZN UK schedule information for broadcast details.

Our view: Ruiz should win, but he has to earn it

At his best, Ruiz is the better fighter. His hand speed, experience and ability to exchange in close are beyond anything Knyba has shown so far. If he comes in fit, uses the jab to create angles rather than simply cover distance, and attacks the body without becoming predictable, he should take control in the middle rounds.

But this is not 2019, and it should not be judged through nostalgia.

The result matters less than the method. A one-punch knockout would be exciting, but it would not answer every question. The most convincing Ruiz win would be a disciplined one: pressure built round by round, Knyba’s jab taken away, combinations placed intelligently and a veteran controlling the fight without panicking when the taller man has success.

That would show that Ruiz still has a route back into a crowded heavyweight division.

For anyone learning boxing, this fight is a good lesson in why size is only part of the story. A tall boxer has range. A shorter boxer has to earn entry. The answer is not to rush blindly. It is footwork, feints, timing, body work and the discipline to keep solving the same problem until the opponent runs out of answers.

That is the kind of practical boxing we work on at Honour & Glory’s classes in Kidbrooke, where new joiners can start from age seven.