Andy Ruiz Jr., the former heavyweight champion who shocked the world with his victory over Anthony Joshua in 2019, has been on a remarkable journey of weight loss and self-improvement. His career has been marked by significant weight fluctuations, impacting his performance and overall health. This article delves into Ruiz's weight loss plan, exploring his motivations, strategies, and the impact it has had on his boxing career and personal life.
Early Career and Weight Struggles
Ruiz's weight has been a topic of discussion throughout his professional career. When he turned pro in 2009, he weighed a massive 297½ pounds. Despite his natural boxing skills and training, Ruiz would fall into the category of people who are considered obese due to his excess weight over the years. Encouraged to lose weight, Ruiz dropped to 250 pounds within a year and fluctuated between 250 and 270 [odd] for the next decade. Even when he shocked the world and knocked out Anthony Joshua in 2019, Ruiz was not even at his best when scaling 268 pounds.
The Joshua Fights: A Tale of Two Weights
The two fights against Anthony Joshua highlight the impact of Ruiz's weight on his performance. In their first encounter in June 2019 at Madison Square Garden, Ruiz weighed in at 268 pounds. Despite being considered an underdog, Ruiz's hand speed and power proved too much for Joshua, resulting in a stunning seventh-round TKO victory for Ruiz.
However, the rematch in December 2019 in Saudi Arabia told a different story. Months of partying took their toll, and he came in at 283½ pounds, 16 pounds heavier than he had been in their first fight. He then refused to remove his t-shirt, and the game was up as his weight was read out in public. One British boxing writer noted that “while Joshua sported a six-pack, his opponent appeared to have consumed one.”
Ruiz blamed his lack of conditioning as the main reason for the loss. Joshua danced around the ring, landing speedy hooks and jabs while avoiding trading big blows with the comparably sluggish Ruiz, who was unable to throw his trademark combinations. “I didn’t prepare how I should have,” said Ruiz, who lost by unanimous decision. “He boxed me around. I gained too much weight.”
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The Turning Point: A Call for Change
Fueled by the embarrassment and regret of losing his title, Ruiz lifestyle deteriorated further. He stopped training altogether, stating matter-of-factly the only running he did was to the grocery store or for fast food. “I was empty and sad and I felt I let everyone down,” he recalls. “I had lost what I’d been working for my whole life and I didn’t want to do anything, and I was still partying, trying to find stuff to make me forget about my loss.”
Until that day in the spring of 2020, when Ruiz finally decided he’d had enough. Kneeling by the side of his bed, he asked God to show him the light. “I was so depressed and tired of the way I was living,” Ruiz says. “I prayed to God to forgive me for the things I’ve done, and to give me the strength to change. The next day, all the temptations went away, my mind focused and I knew what I wanted and needed to do.” It sounds overly simple, but the next day, Ruiz had a plan, and he was putting it into action.
The Comeback Plan: Teamwork and Discipline
In a late March Instagram post, Ruiz is slipping and dodging a swinging teardrop heavy bag, with his newly developed teardrop quads peeking out from underneath the bottom hem of his shorts. A similar post appears on the Instagram of super middleweight champion and fellow Mexican Canelo Alvarez, who is widely viewed as the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world. And it’s no coincidence. The day after calling on God for help, Ruiz called on Alvarez.
Ruiz told Alvarez he was tired of the way he was living and asked if he and his trainer Eddy Reynoso-one of the best in the sport-would consider taking him on. At first, Reynoso was skeptical; he knew Ruiz was a talented boxer, but was concerned about his reputation for being undisciplined and lazy. But after talking with Ruiz and meeting with his father, Andy Sr., who had coached his son until he was 14 years old, Reynoso agreed to become Ruiz’s new coach and welcomed him into the Alvarez camp.
“Eddie told me, ‘Andy, we believe in you and we know you have the potential, but you need to be dedicated and disciplined and you need to give 110 percent,’” Ruiz recalls. “I told him I will do whatever it takes to become champ again.”
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Ruiz said having his own gym in San Diego has allowed him to train better under his own preferred terms and schedule. “I learned discipline and me having to work hard, especially,” said Ruiz. "I feel once you do that, you become more disciplined. It becomes more of a habit. It's more motivating.”
Diet and Nutrition
Getting his diet under control was a crucial part of Ruiz's transformation. They got his diet under control, convincing Ruiz that his beloved barbecue ribs and chilaquiles with beans, eggs and bacon were to be treats rather than habits, and turned him on to salmon, brown rice and veggies.
When his diet begins, is Ruiz Jr disciplined?Yes. We try to make it healthier. A lot of fruits and vegetables but he has the occasional treat. For the most part, he is serious about his diet. We try to give him the correct fuel to get through his training sessions. We introduce veggies and fish.
A typical daily meal plan includes: We wake up and have an omelette with mushroom and spinach and avocado. I switch up the meats. Andy likes to keep lunch lighter because he trains later in the day. We have three full meals and snacks in between. He might snack on a wrap or a sandwich, something that he travel with. Pasta or rice. We just left Saudi Arabia and Andy tried some rice there. He loved it, and now I have to try and replicate that rice! Steaks. He loves to eat steaks, man. Whenever we can fit in a steak, we do.
During camp we will cheat. In the last camp we would go to the movies at the weekend and he would have popcorn. But the tacos are our getaway on Friday night, our cheat meal. There is a place we go to where he eats tacos. There is a place near his house, an outdoor area on the corner where you can't even sit inside - Andy loves the el pastor con queso tacos.
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Does a cheat meal keep Ruiz Jr focused during a training camp?Definitely. We have to keep him happy. When he is hungry he gets grouchy. So I keep him fed.
Ruiz Jr. promised to eat only protein for three weeks while dieting ahead of his return.
Training Regime
Reynoso also immediately put Ruiz on a weight-training program, the first of his career. Go back to Ruiz’s Instagram posts and you’ll see him throwing rapid-fire left hooks with a resistance band coiled around his body, tossing a heavy med ball against the wall with jumping footwork drills between reps, completing three-minute rounds of 300 punches in a swimming pool and doing barbell supersets.
“We started doing things I had never done before, and it was really, really hard,” Ruiz says. “The first month I couldn’t bend down I was so sore, but as I saw improvement, I got more and more motivated.”
Ruiz said he got a head start on training this time around by hitting the gym beginning in May. He’s looking to avoid ring rust after fighting once in 33 months. “Things could happen, you know. I've been fighting since 6 years old. This is the only job I've ever had in my life. That's why we had a long training camp so we can get ready for the fight. Muscle memory is going to kick in,” said Ruiz. “I have two trainers that are on me 100% all the time. All of the time is for me. It's kind of harder on me, but this is exactly what I need.“
Being the type of fighter that I am, I love to do mitts. Without doing mitts, I feel off. I like to throw combinations and be explosive. We've been doing mitts almost every single day. It's a blessing to have … When I was with Eddy, [Osuna] was still there helping us out. He has a good relationship with Eddy as well. Osuna is helping my other fighters as well … I told him that I was going to bring him to help me do the mitts. This is what I need to do - all the tools that I didn't do in my last camp.”
Mental Fortitude
What Ruiz was missing, however, was belief. His father says he would make Andy Jr. watch the movie “Rocky” at least once a week. “I would tell him, ‘You are going to be the Mexican Rocky! You will make history!’” Ruiz Sr. recalls. “He thought I was crazy.”
But as Ruiz grew, so did his self-confidence.
Ruiz's Current Status and Future Goals
ANDY “THE DESTROYER" RUIZ JR. is training at House of Boxing in San Diego in a black t-shirt that shamelessly proclaims Ya No Quiero Estar Gordo: “I don’t want to be fat anymore.”
Ruiz is now 255 pounds, 55 pounds less than his peak last spring and even 13 pounds less than the first Joshua fight. He looks fit and strong rather than round, and even his jawline is sharper.
LOS ANGELES - Andy Ruiz Jr. aims to weigh between 260 to 265 pounds when he steps on the scales to fight Luis Ortiz on Sept. 4 at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on FOX pay-per-view. “Nothing crazy,” Ruiz told a group of reporters that included BoxingScene.com. “I'm not here to lose so much weight. I'm trying to be fit and gain a little bit of muscle and not be too skinny. It's not a body contest. The main thing is to stay focused, stay prepared, and stay ready.”
Ruiz Jr., who broke his hand in his fight against Jarrell Miller and has not fought for 11 months, announces that he is ready to return to the ring.
Ruiz Sr. hopes a victory over Arreola could lead to a possible fight against Dillian Whyte, whose trash-talk game has been dirty: “Ruiz is glad the only battle he’s got now is with diabetes,” said Whyte, despite the fact that Ruiz has never had the medical condition. “Diabetes he can overcome, but he can’t overcome me.” But it could also lead to a fight with former longtime WBC champ Deontay Wilder, and then two-time world heavyweight champ Tyson Fury, whom Ruiz will have to best to get a third crack at Joshua to reclaim the heavyweight crown.
“I feel like this is my first fight, like the new Andy was born,” Ruiz says. “I still have a lot more to accomplish and a lot more to prove. I want to get those belts back.”