Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn revealed that they are already in negotiations with Andy Ruiz Jr’s team, as the IBF has ordered a mandatory fight for the interim heavyweight belt against Filip Hrgovic.
“In fact, Filip Hrgovic has received an order to fight Andy Ruiz for the IBF interim belt,” the Matchroom Boxing president commented in an interview with the YouTube channel Boxing Social. “There are negotiations right now between me, Keller and Tom Brown at PBC. I think any of those guys is a good opponent for AJ (Anthony Joshua).”
In November 2022, at the WBC convention, a final elimination match was ordered between Deontay Wilder and the Mexican-American to meet the next mandatory challenger for the champion, which is Tyson Fury.
For the past few months, Wilder’s former heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua has sounded like a rival. But the last thing that was said is that they were in talks with Andy Ruiz’s team. Since both are part of PBC, everything indicated that this confrontation was on track.
“I’m going for the belts”, was the message that Andy Ruiz stated in a video that he published in his gym where he is already training for his next clash.
However, the unification between Fury and Oleksandr Usyk for all four belts has everything stopped at heavyweight. Initially, it was contemplated that it would take place at the beginning of March, but different things are yet to be fixed and it may be postponed until the end of that month or until April.
Late last year, the IBF ordered Oleksandr Usyk to defend the IBF belt against Filip Hrgovic. However, later they managed to get the Federation to withdraw that petition so that it would unify for the four championships.
Andy Ruiz comes from defeating Luis Ortiz by unanimous decision in September 2022. While Hrgovic defeated Zhilei Zhang by unanimous decision that same month.
