Andy Ruiz Jr Loses to Damian Knyba on Points

Damian Knyba dealt a severe blow to Andy Ruiz Jr’s latest attempt to re-establish himself among the heavyweight elite when he dropped the former unified world champion and defeated him on a unanimous decision over 12 rounds at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.

The Polish heavyweight won by scores of 117-110 and, rather surprisingly, 114-113 twice. The latter pair suggested a contest considerably closer than the one which unfolded in front of them. Knyba had done most of the effective work, controlled the distance for lengthy periods and produced the night’s decisive moment when he sent Ruiz heavily to the canvas in the seventh round.

Ruiz had arrived for his comeback looking considerably more serious about his profession than on several previous occasions. At 254.3lb, he was at his lightest recorded weight since 2018, while the towering 6ft 7in Knyba weighed 255.5lb. Ruiz’s trim appearance, however, could do nothing about the five-inch height disadvantage and, more importantly, Knyba’s enormous 86-inch reach. The Pole made excellent use of those physical gifts.

From the opening rounds, Knyba established his jab and kept Ruiz at precisely the range the American did not want. Ruiz’s reputation was built around unusually quick hands for a heavyweight and his ability to fire rapid combinations once he had worked his way into punching distance. Here those combinations were conspicuous by their absence. His feet appeared too slow to close the gap, and whenever he did manage to get close, Knyba was quite happy to smother him or hold before moving away again. There was nothing particularly artistic about it, but heavyweight boxing has never awarded extra marks for decoration.

Ruiz began showing greater purpose in the fourth and fifth, although Knyba remained the man determining where the fight was being conducted. The Pole was warned for holding, which had become an important part of his defence whenever Ruiz breached the perimeter. In the sixth, Ruiz finally landed a substantial right hand, and Knyba suffered a cut around the left eye, offering the former champion his first genuine encouragement of the evening. It proved short-lived.

The seventh changed everything. Knyba caught Ruiz with a powerful combination, and suddenly the former champion’s legs deserted him. Ruiz was driven backwards under another attack before going down heavily. Referee David Franciosi allowed him considerable time to recover after he regained his feet, but Ruiz remained badly shaken, and Knyba went after him in search of the finish. Another heavy attack followed before Ruiz somehow made it to the bell. For a few moments it appeared that a career which had once reached such extraordinary heights at Madison Square Garden might be ending in Newark.

Curiously, being knocked down appeared to stir Ruiz into producing his best boxing of the contest. He showed considerably greater ambition in the eighth, landed enough to force Knyba backwards and went to the body with some success. Ruiz continued pressing in the ninth as Knyba’s previously reliable jab temporarily disappeared and the Pole, fighting beyond eight rounds for the first time, appeared to be feeling the effects of his attempt to secure the stoppage. Ruiz landed right hands, and suddenly there was at least the possibility of an unlikely recovery.

But Knyba gathered himself impressively. Rather than become involved unnecessarily, he returned to the simple formula which had served him so well earlier. The jab came back in the tenth, his feet carried him away from Ruiz’s increasingly laborious advances and the former champion again found himself following rather than cutting off the ring. Knyba landed a solid right in the eleventh and boxed sensibly through the final round, keeping Ruiz outside and denying him the dramatic finish he required.

Knyba therefore improved his record to 18-1 with 11 knockouts and secured the most important victory of his career. It was an impressive response to his third-round stoppage defeat against Agit Kabayel in January, when he had challenged for the interim WBC heavyweight title. Whatever doubts that defeat created, beating a former unified champion represents considerable rehabilitation.

For Ruiz, now 35-3-1 with 22 knockouts, the questions are rather less comfortable. This was his first appearance since his majority draw with Jarrell Miller in August 2024 and another attempt to breathe life into a career which has never regained momentum since the extraordinary night in 2019 when he knocked Anthony Joshua down four times and became unified heavyweight champion. Ruiz was lighter, apparently fitter and reunited with trainer Manny Robles, but none of it restored the sharp feet and fast combinations required to negotiate Knyba’s reach.

The two 114-113 cards flattered Ruiz enormously. Without Knyba’s seventh-round knockdown, those scores would effectively have left the judges within touching distance of handing Ruiz a result which his performance had not earned. The 117-110 card was a much more convincing reflection of an evening in which Knyba performed the elementary tasks well and Ruiz, for far too long, could not find a way of stopping him.

I thought Ruiz looked like a fighter trying to remember what he used to do rather than a man still able to do it. The hands are still quick when he lets them go, but boxing at heavyweight is about getting yourself into position first, and his feet weren’t doing the job. Knyba kept him at the end of that long jab, stepped away whenever Ruiz tried to close the distance and made him reset over and over again. Ruiz spent far too much of the fight following him instead of cutting the ring off.

That’s what disappointed me most. Ruiz has always been dangerous when he gets close because he throws short, compact combinations without wasting much. Against Knyba, he rarely got his feet underneath him properly to let those combinations go. When he did get inside, Knyba tied him up or turned him, and Ruiz allowed it to happen. You can’t give a tall heavyweight that sort of comfort. You’ve got to jab his chest, work the body, move your head on the way in and make him fight at a range he doesn’t like.

The knockdown also told you where Ruiz is at physically. Knyba caught him clean, Ruiz’s legs went, and for a while he looked in serious trouble. Ruiz did show some pride afterwards and had a better spell, but Knyba settled himself, went back behind the jab and took control again.

I had Knyba winning clearly. Those two close scorecards were far kinder to Ruiz than I would have been. Knyba wasn’t brilliant, but he didn’t need to be. He had a sensible plan, and Ruiz couldn’t solve it.

I don’t like writing fighters off, but if Ruiz seriously believes he’s making another run at the world title, I didn’t see anything here to support it.