Andy Ruiz Jr and Jarrell Miller fought to a draw in their heavyweight contest with Ruiz starting off better but gassing to let ‘Big Baby’ back through the door.
The fight was extremely important for both men, the winner moving a step closer to the top table and the loser moving further away with not much time for the journey back.
Neither has to face those consequences. After twelve hard-fought rounds, the scores of 116-112 Miller, 114-114 and 114-114 made it a majority draw, much to the displeasure of the crowd who clearly felt ‘Big Baby’ had done enough.
Post-fight, Miller was clear in the fact that he thought the result was unfair.
“We gotta get different judges out in California. We got a California judge, a Nevada judge, you know… And we knew we were coming to his hometown. One judge had it for me, two had it a draw, so that tells all my story. Outside of boxing, Andy’s my brother, but I know I worked my ass off, I know I had this in the bag. There were some moments where my feet were a little stuck in the sand but I kept the pressure on and let my hands go as much as I could.”
At that moment, Ruiz stepped into the interview sporting a broken hand.
“Look at this s**t, In the fifth round this is how it was. Man, like I said, you’re a warrior. I punched through as much as I can, but my f***ing hand. Oh my gosh. So hard.”
Miller replied with little sympathy, saying that it was ‘part of boxing.’ Fans wouldn’t mind to see them run it back with Ruiz now having shaken off his ring rust and Miller settled in with his new training team, but the latter said he would like to face Jared Anderson despite him losing in sore fashion earlier in the card.
