Andy Ruiz Jr
Andy Ruiz Jr

NEWARK, N.J. — Damian Knyba pulled off a significant upset Friday night, dropping former unified heavyweight champion Andy Ruiz Jr. and winning a unanimous decision in a lopsided heavyweight main event at the Prudential Center, dealing a major setback to Ruiz's attempted return to boxing's title picture.

Judges scored the 12-round bout 117-110, 114-113 and 114-113, all in favor of Knyba, who improved his professional record to 18-1 with 11 knockouts. Ruiz falls to 35-3-1 with 22 knockouts, suffering just the third loss of his career.

The Polish heavyweight, standing 6-foot-7 with an 86-inch reach, used his significant size advantage over the 6-foot-2 Ruiz to control the pace of the fight from the opening rounds. Knyba threw an estimated 720 jabs over the course of the 12-round distance, using his lead hand to keep Ruiz at bay and prevent him from closing the distance needed to work effectively on the inside.

The fight's decisive moment came at the end of the seventh round, when Knyba hurt Ruiz with a double jab-cross combination followed by a barrage of additional punches, dropping the former champion and leaving him needing to survive a difficult stretch before hearing the final bell of the round. Ruiz managed to recover and remain in the fight through the remaining rounds, but was unable to meaningfully close the gap on the scorecards against Knyba's jab-controlled approach.

Ruiz did find moments of success during the fight, particularly in the fifth and sixth rounds, when he picked up his pace, began landing his right hand more consistently, and opened a cut on Knyba. Whenever Ruiz managed to close the distance, however, Knyba frequently tied him up in clinches, stalling Ruiz's offensive output and limiting his ability to land sustained combinations.

Speaking after the fight, Ruiz pointed to Knyba's clinching as a key factor in the outcome, while also crediting his opponent's overall strategy.

"I just want to thank God, man, for this opportunity and Eddie Hearn," Ruiz said. "I don't know. I think it was just him holding. Every time I try to come in, he hold me really tight. And I couldn't let my combinations go, but he played a good game plan, but I love to run it back and do things a lot different."

Despite the loss, Ruiz insisted he remains capable of competing for a heavyweight world title, attributing much of his difficulty to the lengthy layoff heading into the fight rather than any decline in his overall ability.

"Of course I do, man," Ruiz said when asked if he still believes he can win a title. "It was just a long layoff and it was a great opponent, you know, and I didn't want to take an easy fight, so that's why I took Damian and he's a big guy, but you know, we got to take risks."

Ruiz made clear he does not intend to retire following the setback, expressing a desire to remain active and continue pursuing another run at a heavyweight championship.

"Like I said, I want to thank God and, you know, it's not done," Ruiz said. "God's not done, man. Just because of this loss, I still got it in me, man. I just need to stay active and I want to fight again. I want to fight again."

Friday's fight marked Ruiz's first bout since a majority draw against Jarrell Miller in August 2024, and just his second fight over the preceding four years. Ruiz, who turns 37 in a week, famously shocked Anthony Joshua in June 2019 to become the first heavyweight champion of Mexican descent, only to lose the belts back to Joshua in a rematch roughly six months later. The seven years since that title loss have been defined more by inactivity, weight fluctuations and inconsistency than by regular competition inside the ring.

The fight represented Ruiz's first bout under his new promotional deal with Eddie Hearn and Matchroom Boxing, a partnership aimed at helping guide him toward a second heavyweight championship run. Instead, the opening fight of that deal produced a knockdown and a loss to an opponent who had himself been stopped in his previous outing.

For Knyba, Friday's win represents by far the most significant victory of his career, coming just months after he was stopped in the third round by interim WBC champion Agit Kabayel in January, a defeat that had put him in what analysts described as a must-win situation heading into Friday's bout. Knyba's win over a former unified heavyweight champion repositions him within the division after that earlier setback, and immediately raises questions about potential next steps for the Polish heavyweight, including a possible rematch with Ruiz.

Two former world champions serving as broadcast analysts during the fight suggested afterward that Ruiz should consider stepping away from the sport following the loss, according to accounts of the broadcast, though Ruiz's own comments made clear he has no immediate plans to do so.

Elsewhere on Friday's undercard at the Prudential Center, Vito Mielnicki Jr. defeated Austin Williams by unanimous decision in a middleweight bout, with all three judges scoring the fight 98-91. In a significant upset on the undercard, Eridson Garcia stopped heavily favored Alan Chaves by unanimous decision to win the WBO Latino lightweight title, dropping Chaves four times over the course of the bout. Super featherweight Zaquin Moses also picked up a win, stopping Angel Antonio Contreras after the fifth round when Contreras remained on his stool.

With Friday's loss, Ruiz's hopes of quickly returning to heavyweight title contention have been significantly complicated, even as he has indicated a clear intention to continue fighting. Given the competitive nature of the bout despite the lopsided official scorecards, a rematch between Ruiz and Knyba stands as an obvious next step for both fighters, and one that Matchroom Boxing may have strong incentive to pursue given the financial investment already made in building Ruiz's comeback campaign around a potential second heavyweight championship run.

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