Andy Ruiz Jr vows to continue fighting after defeat to Damian Knyba

Seven years ago, Andy Ruiz Jr shook the sport to its core in New York, flattening Anthony Joshua and walking away with the heavyweight titles that were supposed to be untouchable. On Saturday night across the river in Newark, he looked like a man still chasing the ghost of that version of himself.

At the Prudential Center, the 36-year-old Mexican-American was outworked, outmoved and, at one critical moment, almost taken out by Poland’s Damian Knyba, who claimed a unanimous decision and the biggest win of his career.

The cards read 117-110, 114-113 and 114-113 in favour of Knyba. They told one story. The seventh round told another.

Saved by the bell

Ruiz, making just his fourth appearance since losing the Joshua rematch in December 2019, never really found rhythm. The hand speed that once shredded Joshua’s composure flickered only in flashes. Too often he plodded in straight lines, reaching for a target that slipped away or tied him up.

The fight’s turning point came in the seventh. Knyba, the taller, fresher man, finally broke through with authority, sending Ruiz to the canvas and silencing those still clinging to memories of Madison Square Garden. Ruiz scrambled up, legs unsteady, instincts kicking in. The bell arrived like a lifeline.

He survived. He didn’t convince.

Across the remaining rounds, Knyba did enough: smart feet, long punches, and, when Ruiz tried to step in close, a clinch to smother those trademark combinations. It was not spectacular, but it was effective. His record now stands at 18 wins and one defeat, a solid platform in a division always hungry for new names.

Ruiz, though, refused to accept that the night told the full truth about where he is.

“I don't know, I think it was just him holding,” he said afterwards, frustration clear as he dissected the loss. “Every time I tried to come in, he'd hold me really tight, and I just couldn't let my combinations go. He played a good game plan, but I'd love to run it back and do things a lot different.”

Rust, risk and a late restart

This was Ruiz’s first fight since a draw with Jarrell Miller in August 2024, another stop-start chapter in a career repeatedly interrupted by injuries, layoffs and lost momentum. The inactivity showed. His timing lagged, his sharpness dulled, the bursts of offense too sporadic to sway the judges.

For Ruiz, the explanation was simple: rust.

“It was just a long layoff, and it was a great opponent,” he argued. “I didn't want to take an easy fight, so that's why I took Damian. He's a big guy. But we've got to take risks. I've still got it in me, man. I've just got to stay active and I want to fight again.”

That line – “I've still got it in me” – will divide opinion. Some will see a former champion in decline, the magic of 2019 fading with every laboured step. Others will point to the gaps between fights, the lack of continuity, and wonder what a fully active Ruiz might still produce.

What is clear is that he is not walking away.

A new promoter, a familiar resolve

Ruiz has recently linked up with British promoter Eddie Hearn, the same man who guided Joshua through their dramatic two-fight saga. It is a curious twist: Joshua’s conqueror now trying to rebuild under the banner of the promoter whose plans he once wrecked.

That alliance is designed to bring activity, structure and big nights. It begins, though, from a bruising reality check in New Jersey.

Ruiz wants the rematch. Knyba, with momentum and options, may look elsewhere. The heavyweight division rarely waits for yesterday’s stories to resolve themselves; it simply moves on.

So the question now is not whether Andy Ruiz Jr still believes. He clearly does.

The question is whether time, and the unforgiving rhythm of a division that never slows down, will give him the chance to prove it.