Andy Ruiz Jr. vs Anthony Joshua II

Clash On The Dunes

Date	December 7, 2019
Venue	Diriyah Arena, Diriyah, Saudi Arabia
Title(s) on the line	WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, and IBO heavyweight titles
Tale of the tape
Boxer Andy Ruiz Jr. Anthony Joshua Nickname "Destroyer" "AJ" Hometown Imperial, California, U.S. Watford, Hertfordshire, UK Pre-fight record 33–1 (22 KO) 22–1 (21 KO) Age 30 years, 2 months 30 years, 1 month Height 6 ft 2 in (188 cm) 6 ft 6 in (198 cm) Weight 284 lb (129 kg) 237 lb (108 kg) Style Orthodox Orthodox Recognition WBA (Super), IBF, WBO and IBO Heavyweight Champion TBRB No. 1 Ranked Heavyweight The Ring No. 3 Ranked Heavyweight WBA/WBO No. 3 Ranked Heavyweight IBF/The Ring/TBRB No. 4 Ranked Heavyweight Former unified heavyweight champion
Result
Joshua wins via 12-round unanimous decision (118–110, 118–110, 119–109)

Andy Ruiz Jr. vs Anthony Joshua II, billed as Clash On The Dunes, was a heavyweight professional boxing rematch between the Mexican-American champion Andy Ruiz Jr. and British former champion Anthony Joshua, for the unified WBA (Super), IBF, WBO and IBO heavyweight world titles. The event took place on December 7, 2019, at the Diriyah Arena, Diriyah, Saudi Arabia. Joshua won the bout via unanimous decision. ^{[1] [2]} The bout between Ruiz and Joshua was refereed by Luis Pabon. ^[3]

Background

After losing by seventh-round technical knockout to Andy Ruiz Jr. on June 1, 2019, at Madison Square Garden in New York City in one of the biggest upsets in the history of boxing, ^{[4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]} Joshua stated in a post-fight interview that he and his team certainly expected to exercise the rematch clause with Ruiz. Four days after the fight took place, Joshua's promoter and group managing director of Matchroom Sport Eddie Hearn announced on social media platforms that Joshua's management team triggered the contractual rematch clause with Ruiz.

Saudi Arabian authorities reportedly paid £30 million ($41.1 million) to host the event in Saudi Arabia. ^[12]

The fight

Joshua dominated the fight, landing smart jabs and right hands throughout enroute to a wide unanimous decision victory with two judges scoring the bout 118–110 and the other 119–109. ^[13]

Aftermath

After his wide defeat Ruiz expressed interest in a third bout with Joshua, saying "I was chasing him too much. Who wants to see the trilogy fight?" ^[14]

International broadcasters

The fight was streamed live on Fight Sports MAX in MENA region (Saudi Arabia as host), DAZN in the United States and seven other countries, and televised live on PPV's Sky Sports Box Office in the United Kingdom and Ireland. ^{[15] [16] [17]}

Country/Region	Broadcasters
	Free-to-air	Cable / Pay television	PPV	Stream
MENA   Saudi Arabia (host)   Algeria   Bahrain   Egypt   Iraq   Jordan   Kuwait   Lebanon   Morocco   Oman   Qatar   Tunisia   United Arab Emirates	—			Fight Sports MAX
United States	—			DAZN
Austria
Brazil
Canada
Germany
Italy
Spain
Switzerland
Mexico	Azteca 7	—		Azteca En Vivo
Latin America   Argentina   Bolivia   Chile   Colombia   Costa Rica   Dominican Republic   Ecuador   El Salvador   Guatemala   Honduras   Mexico   Nicaragua   Panama   Paraguay   Peru   Uruguay   Venezuela	—	ESPN [18]	—	WatchESPN
United Kingdom	—		Sky Sports Box Office
Ireland
Australia [19]	—		Main Event	—
Balkan countries   Bosnia and Herzegovina   Montenegro   North Macedonia   Serbia	—	Arena Sport		Orion TV (SRB only)
				Max TV Go (exclude SRB)
Croatia [20]	RTL
		—		RTL Play
Baltic countries   Estonia   Latvia   Lithuania	—	TVPlay Sports [21]	—	TVPlay Sports+
Belgium	—	Eleven Sports [22]	—	Eleven Sports
Portugal
Taiwan
Luxembourg
	RTL 7			RTL XL
Netherlands [23]			—
Brunei	—		Astro Box Office	Astro Go
Malaysia
Bulgaria [24]	—	Diema Sport	—	Diema Play Extra
China	CCTV	—		CNTV
Czech Republic	—	Sport1	—	Digi GO
Hungary
Slovakia
France [25]	—	RMC Sport	—	RMC Sport
Indonesia	Mola TV [26]		—	Mola TV On Demand
Timor-Leste
Israel	—	Sport 1	—	Sport 1
Japan [27]	—	Wowow	—	Wowow
New Zealand	—		Sky Arena	—
Nordic countries   Denmark   Finland   Norway   Sweden	—		Viaplay [28]
Mexico	Azteca 7	—		Azteca En Vivo
Panama [29]	RPC-TV	—		Medcom Go
Philippines	Tap Sports		—	Tap Go
Poland [30]	TVP Sport	—		TVP Stream
Romania [31]	Pro TV		—	Pro TV Plus
				Voyo
Russia [32]	Channel One	—		Channel One
South Africa	OpenView	—
Tajikistan	TV Varzish	—		Mediabay
Uzbekistan [33]	Sport
Turkey [34]	—			SSport+
Ukraine [35]	Inter	—		Inter

Fight card

Confirmed bouts: ^{[36] [37]}

Weight Class	Weight		vs.		Method	Round	Time	Notes
Heavyweight	+90 kg.	Anthony Joshua	def.	Andy Ruiz Jr. (c)	UD	12		Note 1
Super middleweight	-76.2 kg.	Diego Pacheco	def.	Selemani Saidi	KO	1 (4)	1:38
Heavyweight	+90 kg.	Alexander Povetkin	vs.	Michael Hunter	SD	12
Heavyweight	+90 kg.	Dillian Whyte	def.	Mariusz Wach	UD	10
Featherweight	-57 kg.	Hopey Price	def.	Swedi Mohamed	TKO	3 (4)	2:22
Heavyweight	+90 kg.	Filip Hrgović (c)	def.	Éric Molina	KO	3 (12)	2:03	Note 2
Heavyweight	+90 kg.	Mahammadrasul Majidov	def.	Tom Little	TKO	2 (8)	1:49
Lightweight	-61.2 kg.	Zuhayr Al Qahtani	def.	Omar Dusary	UD	8
Lightweight	-61.2 kg.	Majid Al Naqbi	def.	Ilia Beruashvili	TKO	3 (4)

^Note 1 For Unified WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, and IBO heavyweight titles ^[38]

^Note 2 For WBC International heavyweight title

Viewership

On Sky Sports Box Office, the fight reportedly broke the all-time UK pay-per-view (PPV) record, according to Eddie Hearn (who said he was told by Sky Sports). The Broadcasters' Audience Research Board (BARB) revealed that Sky Sports Box Office generated 1.284 million buys on fight night, and a further 291,000 buys over the following two weeks, ^[39] totaling 1.575 million buys in the UK. ^[40]

On DAZN, the fight was the most streamed event of 2019. ^[41] It was watched live by approximately 1.8 million DAZN subscribers across nine markets, according to The Athletic boxing journalist Mike Coppinger, who also said the fight drew 200,000 new subscribers, with most from the United States. ^[42]

See also

• Anthony Joshua vs. Andy Ruiz Jr.

References

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4. "Anthony Joshua sensationally beaten by Andy Ruiz Jr at Madison Square Garden". 2019-06-02. Retrieved 2019-12-08.
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6. Domin, Martin (2019-11-28). "Andy Ruiz Jr identifies moment he knew he could beat Anthony Joshua". mirror. Retrieved 2019-12-08.
7. "What happened to Anthony Joshua, and what did we learn from Andy Ruiz Jr.'s big upset?". ESPN.com. 2019-06-02. Retrieved 2019-12-08.
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11. "Andy Ruiz Jr lifts lid on WWE offer after Tyson Fury debut ahead of Anthony Joshua rematch | Boxing | Sport | Express.co.uk". www.express.co.uk. Retrieved 2019-12-08.
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15. "Andy Ruiz Jr. vs. Anthony Joshua rematch to take place in Saudi Arabia on Dec. 7 | DAZN News US". DAZN . Retrieved 2019-11-03.
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24. "Кралят се завърна! Джошуа отново се възкачи на световния боксов трон". Gong.bg (in Bulgarian). Retrieved 2019-12-08.
25. "Droits TV : RMC Sport s'offre la revanche Anthony Joshua-Andy Ruiz - Boxe - Lourds". L'Équipe (in French). Retrieved 2019-11-03.
26. "Mola TV on Instagram: "Anthony Joshua alias "AJ' dianggap sebagai salah satu petinju terbaik di kelas berat. Ia pernah menjuarai empat gelar bergengsi tinju kelas…"". Instagram . Retrieved 2019-11-29.
27. "WOWOWオンライン". WOWOW (in Japanese). Retrieved 2019-11-11.
28. "Joshua vs. Ruiz uusintaottelu yksinoikeudella Viaplayssa - ePressi". www.epressi.com (in Finnish). 13 November 2019. Retrieved 2019-11-16.
29. "Lo Mejor del Boxeo on Instagram: "Nuestras próximas transmisiones internacionales: Sábado 23 de nov, 9pm por RPC: la revancha entre Deontay Wilder y el cubano Luis "King…"". Instagram. Archived from the original on 2021-12-25. Retrieved 2020-01-31.
30. "Dla kogo rewanż? Joshua vs. Ruiz II w TVP Sport!". TVP (in Polish). Retrieved 2019-11-29.
31. "Omul care l-a facut KO pe Joshua a ajuns intre puscariasii periculosi din Mexic! VIDEO". Sport.ro (in Romanian). Retrieved 2019-11-29.
32. "Где и когда смотреть "Столкновение в дюнах": расписание трансляций реванша Джошуа - Руис". www.segodnya.ua (in Russian). Retrieved 2019-12-08.
33. "UzSportTV (official) on Instagram: "Саудия Арабистонида бутун дунё орзиқиб кутган реванш жанги бўлиб ўтди. Руис собиқ чемпион Энтони Жошуага қарши рингга кўтарилди. Йил…"". Instagram . Retrieved 2020-02-02.
34. "#AndyRuiz ile #AnthonyJoshua'ı karşı karşıya getirecek olan WBO, WBA, IBF ve IBO dünya ağır sıklet kemer maçının gerçekleşeceği boks gecesi, 7 Aralık Cumartesi 19:00'dan itibaren canlı yayınla sadece S Sport Plus'ta!". Twitter . Retrieved 2019-12-03.
35. "Бокс Энтони Джошуа VS Энди Руис | 7 декабря в 21:30 на Телеканал Інтер". Inter . Retrieved 2019-12-08.
36. "BoxRec - event".
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38. "BoxRec: Event". boxrec.com. Retrieved 2019-12-06.
39. "Weekly viewing summary (Sky Box Office Events buys between 2 December 2019 and 15 December 2019)". Broadcasters' Audience Research Board . Retrieved 25 December 2019.
40. Jay, Phil (5 January 2020). "Joshua vs Klitschko UK PPV Record Obliterated". World Boxing News. Retrieved 10 January 2020.
41. Bickerton, Jake (7 January 2020). "DAZN reveals Top 10 most streamed events of 2019". Broadcast Now . Retrieved 9 January 2020.
42. "Joshua vs. Ruiz 2 brings in around 1.8 million viewers on DAZN". Boxing News 24. 10 December 2019. Retrieved 11 December 2019.

External links

• Official website

Preceded by First fight	Andy Ruiz Jr.' bouts 7 December 2019	Succeeded by vs. Chris Arreola
	Anthony Joshua's bouts 7 December 2019	Succeeded by vs. Kubrat Pulev
Awards
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