Andy Ruiz Jr. has said that three months of celebration and lack of adequate training have made him “overweight” during the race to defend his title against Anthony Joshua.
Ruiz, 30, lost the mark in Saudi Arabia, six months after he shook the world when he defeated boxing champion Anthony Joshua in the United States.
The Mexico international has said that it would be better if he won the third round.
“I had to practice enough. I would pay more attention to the coaches and my team,” Ruiz said.
“With this fight I was overweight. I didn’t achieve my goals as I wanted them to.”
“There is no reason to defend the fact that I celebrated more. But in another battle things will be different.”
Ruiz, who holds second place in the world championship on the rope, has added 7 kilograms since he defeated Joshua, who is now a double winner.
Many had questioned whether his lifestyle which included buying new homes, cars and holding several meetings with the media after winning might have been a factor in his resignation.
Ruiz has seemed remorseful and apologized to his coaches Manny Robles and his father Andres when he had a meeting with the media after a fight with his fans expressed his approval for his applause.
The former world champion claims that after winning the victory he lost weight but later began to add: “I added weight and that was a huge mistake. Nobody knows about the exercises we were doing.
“Being a champion for the first time, being here and there and not practicing, was not an easy thing.
“I promise that things will be fine and for now what I want is to return to where I was here in Saudi Arabia.”
His coach Robles added that he had three months to practice but that much could not have been done in the three months since he defeated Joshua and when he started training.
“I do not want to say that three months of celebration did not affect me”, said Ruiz.
“There is no reason to defend the fact that I celebrated more. But in another battle things will be different.”
“People still struggle with me. I’m still a good fighter at heavyweight and the fact is that I can beat anyone in the world.”
“Please believe that I will return to my position and become the world boxing champion for the world heavyweight title.”
