Andy Ruiz Signs With Matchroom — The Destroyer Is Back And Boxing Should Be Buzzing

• Andy Ruiz Jr has signed a multi-fight promotional deal with Eddie Hearn's Matchroom Boxing, with his ring return set to be announced live on DAZN
• The Destroyer — the man who shocked Anthony Joshua in 2019 — has been out since a majority draw in August 2024 and finally has a proper platform to rebuild on
• Luke's verdict: on his day Andy Ruiz is a nightmare for anyone in the division, but the weight and the layoff are the two fights he has to win before anything else

Right Then — The Destroyer Has A New Home

Right then, let's not beat around the bush: Andy Ruiz signing with Matchroom is the best bit of heavyweight housekeeping we've had in weeks. The former unified champion has put pen to paper on a multi-fight deal with Eddie Hearn, and word is his comeback will be announced live on DAZN in the coming days. Make no mistake, this matters. A fit, motivated Andy Ruiz is one of the most watchable big men on the planet, and the sport is better for having him back on a serious platform.

What The Deal Actually Means

Here's the shape of it. Andy Ruiz (35-2-1, 22 KOs) has been in boxing's waiting room since that majority draw with Jarrell Miller back in August 2024, a night that flattered nobody and settled nothing. Two years is a long time to be idle at the top level, and without a promotional home he was drifting. Matchroom fixes that overnight. Hearn has the DAZN dates, the matchmaking depth and the appetite to build a heavyweight card around a name, and Andy Ruiz is exactly that — a name that still moves the needle.

Why Matchroom Makes Sense

This is a proper fit, if you know you know. Matchroom's heavyweight roster is deep enough to hand Ruiz a live opponent every time out, and DAZN gives him the global shop window he needs to remind everyone what he can do. There's a lovely irony too: the promoter who guided Anthony Joshua now has the man who dismantled him on the books. That storyline writes itself, and Hearn is not one to leave a storyline sitting on the table.

The Joshua Ghost Still Hangs Over Everything

You cannot talk about Andy Ruiz without talking about that night in New York. June 2019, Madison Square Garden, a chubby late-notice replacement with the fastest hands in the division walking through the golden boy and stopping him in the seventh. It remains one of the great upsets in heavyweight history, and it announced Andy Ruiz to the world in the loudest way imaginable. Joshua got his revenge six months later in Saudi, boxing clever over twelve rounds, but the first fight is the one that lives forever. Ruiz will always have that.

So Where Does Ruiz Go From Here?

Let's get to the meat of it. The talk is that Andy Ruiz could return in September on a Matchroom show, and that's exactly the right timeline — enough runway to get in proper shape, not so long that the deal goes cold. What he needs first is a live-but-winnable comeback fight, the sort that blows off two years of rust without throwing him to the wolves on night one.

The Two Fights Before The Fights

And here's the honest bit. Andy Ruiz has two opponents to beat before he beats anybody in the ring: the scales and the calendar. At his best, in that Ruiz-Joshua first fight and the Chris Arreola performance that followed, he was sharp, trim by his standards, and firing those quick combinations that make him so awkward. When the weight creeps up and the activity drops off, he becomes a flat-footed version of a brilliant fighter. If he turns up in condition, the skills have never left — the hand speed, the timing, the surprisingly slick defence for a man his size are all still there.

My Verdict

Time to call it, and I'm not sitting on the fence. If Andy Ruiz commits to the gym the way Matchroom will need him to, he is a genuine top-five heavyweight threat and a fight nobody in the division actually wants. That's not nostalgia talking — the tools are elite. But it all hinges on the graft between now and the first bell. Sign me up for the comeback, get him a proper live body in September, and let's see whether the Destroyer fancies one more real run. On talent alone, I'd not bet against him.