So Andy Ruiz Jr it is.
After two weeks of frantic phone calls and emails to the likes of Luis Ortiz, Michael Hunter, Trevor Bryan, Adam Kownacki and Manuel Charr, promoter Eddie Hearn has settled on Ruiz to face Anthony Joshua.
Confirming the news on Tuesday, Hearn claims Ruiz will be “a tougher test” than Jarrell Miller and while he may be right, that’s not saying much.
Ruiz is not the sort of opponent to excite fight fans for Joshua’s much-hyped US debut at Madison Square Garden on June 1.
With his stocky frame, Ruiz looks more like a pub doorman than a world heavyweight title contender.
Who is Andy Ruiz Jr? Anthony Joshua's next opponent profiled
His record may look decent at 32-1-0 with his only loss being against Joseph Parker when they met for the vacant WBO crown in December 2016, but that defeat looks worse with every reverse the Kiwi suffers.
The highest ranking for the American, who has Mexican ancestry, with the four main governing bodies is 11th with the WBA.
Matchroom’s selection of first Miller, who was scrubbed because of his failed drugs tests, and now Ruiz highlights a big problem for Joshua.
Joshua was able to fill Wembley and the Cardiff’s Principality Stadium twice because he appealed to casual sports fans who were happy to watch his journey to unifying the WBA Super, IBF and WBO belts.
But after the high water mark of his dramatic win over Wladimir Klitschko two years ago, the only fights they are prepared to stump up for now are Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury.
Everything else feels like a marking-time fight for them, which is why Hearn has tried to give Joshua’s slowing career some fresh momentum by taking him to America.
Boxing news: Anthony Joshua to fight Andy Ruiz Jr on June 1
Hearn can get away with Ruiz on this occasion because the event is all about Joshua fighting in the US for the first time in the cathedral of boxing that is the Garden.
But fight fans on both sides of the Atlantic won’t swallow Joshua fighting another bang-average opponent is his next fight in the autumn.
Hearn knows this which is why his global broadcaster partner DAZN offered Wilder a king’s ransom to agree to a unification clash with Joshua.
But none of the three seem prepared to risk the nice little earner they have got going with their own broadcaster by agreeing to fight one of the other two.
It’s depressing for fight fans to think that it will be at least 12 months before two out of Wilder, Joshua and Fury get it on, and even that’s being optimistic.
In the meantime, all three are getting older and risk blowing these mega fights if they lose.
This should be a golden age for heavyweight boxing to rival the era of Ali, Frazier, Norton and Foreman from the late 60s and early 70s.
Instead it seems destined to be one of huge disappointment as the three best heavyweights on the planet continue to avoid each other to fight the likes of Andy Ruiz Junior.
