Andy Ruiz Jr Faces Unanimous Decision Loss to Damian Knyba
Andy Ruiz Jr left the Prudential Center bruised, beaten on the cards and briefly dumped on the canvas – but not done.
Seven years after shaking the sport to its core by ripping Anthony Joshua’s world titles away in New York, the 36-year-old walked into Newark trying to restart a stalled career. He walked out with a unanimous decision defeat to Poland’s Damian Knyba and a hard reminder of what a long lay-off does to a fighter’s timing, rhythm and self-belief.
The judges scored it 117-110, 114-113 and 114-113 for Knyba, who moves to 18-1 and pockets the biggest win of his career.
The margins told their own story: one card wide, two tight, but all pointing in the same direction. Ruiz, once the destroyer of Joshua, is now chasing.
For long spells he looked like a man fighting his own rust as much as the 6ft 7in Pole in front of him. The snap in his combinations, the fluid inside work that shocked Joshua at Madison Square Garden, surfaced only in flashes. When he did try to close the distance, Knyba smothered him, tying him up and dragging the pace into his kind of fight.
“I think it was just him holding,” Ruiz said afterwards, frustration cutting through his words. “Every time I tried to come in, he’d hold me really tight, and I just couldn’t let my combinations go. He played a good game plan, but I’d love to run it back and do things a lot different.”
The most jarring moment came in the seventh. Knyba finally broke Ruiz’s resistance with a knockdown that sent a jolt through the arena and a chill through anyone who remembers the night Ruiz floored Joshua four times. Ruiz scrambled up, legs unsteady, and the bell arrived like a lifeline. He survived, but the image lingered: the former champion on the deck, struggling to beat the count.
From there, he fought in bursts, pushing forward, trying to claw back rounds on sheer will. The effort wasn’t enough. Knyba stayed disciplined, stuck to his clinch-heavy plan and did just enough in the exchanges to keep the rounds leaning his way.
This was only Ruiz’s fourth outing since losing the Joshua rematch in December 2019. Injuries, inactivity and false starts have chipped away at what should have been his prime years. His previous appearance came in August 2024, a draw with Jarrell Miller that already hinted at a man trying to rediscover old instincts.
“It was just a long layoff, and it was a great opponent,” he said. “I didn’t want to take an easy fight, so that’s why I took Damian. He’s a big guy. But we’ve got to take risks. I’ve still got it in me, man. I’ve just got to stay active and I want to fight again.”
That last line matters. Ruiz has just linked up with British promoter Eddie Hearn, the same man who guided Joshua through their dramatic two-fight saga. It is a curious reunion, one built on the hope that Ruiz can still matter in a heavyweight division moving fast without him.
On this evidence, the talent hasn’t vanished, but the engine has seized. Timing can be sharpened, conditioning can improve, activity can return. What he cannot get back is time. At 36, every round now counts double.
He wants Knyba again. He wants to prove this was ring rust, not a permanent slide. The judges have made their call. The question now is whether the heavyweight who once stunned the world can still force it to look his way.
