Andy Ruiz Jr., suddenly out of sight and out of mind in any heavyweight discussion, surfaced on social media recently, asking fans who he should fight next.
Answers to Ruiz’s Instagram post were all over the place. To wit: Fight the temptation to party instead of train. But a real one came from Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn, who mentioned Dillian Whyte.
Now it looks as if there is momentum building for Hearn’s suggestion. Ruiz’s comeback from his embarrassing loss to Anthony Joshua on Dec. 7 in Saudi Arabia might be against Whyte.
According to The Athletic, Hearn is offering a seven-figure purse to Ruiz (33-2, 20 KOs) to fight Whyte on March 28 in the U.K. on DAZN. There’s another report from ESPN Deportes that Ruiz plans to fight in May or June. Seven figures, however, could convince him to come back at an earlier date.
Whyte confirmed in a tweet that he met with Hearn on Tuesday.
“Fight news dropping very very soon,’’ Whyte said.
Whyte (27-1, 18 KOs) is coming off a mixed performance in a decision over Mariusz Wach on the undercard of Ruiz’s loss to Joshua in a rematch of his stunning upset of Joshua on June 1 in New York.
Whyte is the mandatory challenger to the belt Deontay Wilder will defend against Tyson Fury in their rematch Feb. 22 on Fox/ESPN+ pay-per-view. Whyte was reinstated as the No. 1 challenger when a doping charge against him was dropped on Dec. 11.