Footage has emerged showing 16-year-old Andy Ruiz Jr sparring the former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski.
Andy Ruiz Jr gained fame after becoming the first Mexican heavyweight boxing champion in history. He won the WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, and IBO heavyweight titles after he stopped Anthony Joshua in the 7th-round during their bout in June of last year.
He recently posted some old footage, which showed Ruiz Jr sparring the former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski. He called Arlovski a “super tough guy”, but also stated that he gave “some trouble” to the former UFC heavyweight champion.
Watch the footage below:
“I was 16 years old when I had the honor to spar with UFC Heavyweight Champion Andrei Arlovski . Super tough guy lived up to his name The Pitbull. I did manage to give him some trouble tho.Face with tears of joy. Thanks champ!”
Ruiz Jr, 30, was just 16-years-old at the time, when the video was filmed. That would make Arlovski, 41, just 27-years-old at the time and arguably in the “prime” of his professional MMA career.
Arlovski is one of the most accomplished heavyweight fighters in MMA. In his long career Arlovski has competed for Strikeforce, WSOF, Affliction, EliteXC, ONE FC and M-1 Challenge. He held the UFC heavyweight title from 5 February, 2005 till 15 April 2006.
Since that time, Ruiz Jr managed to become a heavyweight champion himself. He took all of Anthony Joshua’s heavyweight boxing titles after winning via TKO in the 7th-round during their 1st-meeting inside the squared circle in June of last year. Ruiz Jr went on to lose all of his titles to Joshua in a rematch later that year and he hasn’t competed since.
Meanwhile, Arlovski appears to be in the twilight of his career and has recently been struggling to string together wins, with only 1 victory in his last 6 octagon appearances. In his last fight at UFC 244 in November of last year, Arlovski was defeated by Jairzinho Rozenstruik via knockout early in the 1st-round. He is now expected to face Philipe Lins on May 2, 2020 at UFC Fight Night 174.
This article first appeared on CLOSEDGUARDMEDIA.com on 20th March, 2020.
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