- Andy Ruiz Jr. failed to defend his world heavyweight boxing titles, losing all the belts to Anthony Joshua in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia, on Saturday.
- Ruiz Jr. blamed himself for defeat at the post-fight press conference.
- He told the media he was undertrained, overweight, and partied for too many months following his upset win earlier in the year.
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Andy Ruiz Jr. says he lost his world heavyweight titles to Anthony Joshua because he was undertrained, overweight, and partied for three months.
Ruiz Jr. shook up the boxing world when he dropped Joshua four times en route to a convincing, dominant, seventh round victory at Madison Square Garden in New York City in June.
However, the 30-year-old failed to defend the world titles he won from Joshua earlier this year, as he lost them straight away, being defeated by a lopsided 12-round decision in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia on Saturday, December 7.
“Me, my dad, and my team were talking … I should have listened to them,” Ruiz Jr. said at the post-fight press conference.
"I think we started [training] too late. Three months of partying, celebrating, affected me. What can I say.
"I shouldn't have put on all this weight. I tried to do my kind of training on my own and I'm sorry to [trainer] Manny [Robles], my dad, I got too confident in myself."
Ruiz Jr. recognized that he lost a wide decision to Joshua, but said he holds a victory, too. For Ruiz Jr. the scores are tied with one win apiece, and he wants a trilogy bout. "I know for the third one I'm going to be a lot better."
He added: "There's a lot of responsibility being a champion of the world. I think the partying and all that stuff got the best of me. Next time it'll be a lot better."
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