WBC officially orders Deontay Wilder v Andy Ruiz final eliminator
The World Boxing Council has officially ordered Deontay Wilder to face Andy Ruiz Jr in a final eliminator to decide the mandatory challenger to heavyweight champion Tyson ‘Gypsy King’ Fury for his belt with the organization.
For Wilder (43-2-1, 42 KOs), the WBC’s decision to order him to face the dangerous former unified champ Ruiz Jr (35-2, 22 KOs) probably isn’t music to his ears because he was hoping to get a straight shot against IBF/WBA/WBO champion Oleksandr Usyk without having to go through ‘The Destroyer.’
The way that Ruiz, 33, rifled Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz last September, there’s an excellent chance that he’ll be too much for ‘The Bronze Bomber’ Wilder to deal with.
If Wilder is lucky, WBC champion Fury will throw him a bone by giving him a title shot in a voluntary defense without the fragile-chinned Alabama native having to earn it the hard way by dealing with Ruiz.
Wilder is talking about wanting to fight three more years, but if he faces Ruiz for the WBC final eliminator next, his retirement timeline may come soon.
For his part, Ruiz was hoping to get a trilogy fight against former two-time heavyweight champion Joshua, but the British fighter won’t be going in that direction just yet.
Wilder is going to have to stay on his bike the entire time against Ruiz, as he did in his recent fight against Robert Helenius on October 15th.
In Wilder’s first round knockout win over the 38-year-old Helenius, he was on his bicycle the entire round, throwing only four punches to get the knockout.
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