Former heavyweight champion Andy Ruiz will fight Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller on Aug. 3 in Los Angeles whereas Pitbull Cruz will defend his WBA junior welterweight title against Jose Valenzuela, sources informed ESPN on Monday.
The fights will happen on the Terence Crawford-Israil Madrimov undercard introduced by Riyadh Season, the primary boxing occasion organized by Saudi Arabia exterior the dominion.
Ruiz (35-2, 22 KOs) will fight for the primary time since September 2022, when he floored Luis Ortiz 3 times in a unanimous-decision victory.
Ruiz, who fights out of Southern California, landed his life-changing shot at then-champion Anthony Joshua in June 2019 when Miller failed a doping check. Ruiz, 34, went on to lose his three heavyweight titles that December within the rematch, the primary main boxing occasion in Saudi Arabia.
Miller (26-1-1, 22 KOs) final competed in December when he was TKO’ed within the tenth spherical by Daniel Dubois in Riyadh. The 35-year-old Brooklynite has been suspended twice throughout his boxing profession for PED use and as soon as throughout his kickboxing profession.
Cruz (26-2-1, 18 KOs) will make the primary protection of the title he received final month with an eighth-round TKO victory over Rolly Romero. That was Cruz’s first fight at 140 kilos. The 25-year-old Mexican has received 4 fights since a close-decision defeat to Gervonta Davis in December 2021. Cruz is ESPN’s No. 5 junior welterweight.
Valenzuela (13-2, 9 KOs) is coming off a brutal sixth-round KO win over Chris Colbert in a December rematch. The 24-year-old Mexican misplaced his two earlier bouts, a call defeat to Colbert and a third-round KO by the hands of Edwin De Los Santos. This will probably be Valenzuela’s 140-pound debut.
