“I Don’t Even Know My Hand Is Fractured or Broken”: Andy Ruiz Jr. Reveals the Exact Moment He Suffered Hand Injury During Jarrell Miller Fight

Andy Ruiz Jr. looked a shadow of his former self. The skilled pugilist who defeated the former unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua in 2019 was nowhere to be seen. The ‘Destroyer’ failed to impress as he held Jarrell Miller to a controversial Majority Decision draw on the undercard of the Terence Crawford vs Israil Madrimov main event fight. Although Ruiz started the fight strong, connecting with some good shots, he gassed out quite quickly. From round 4, Miller began to pressure Ruiz and wear him down with his body shots. Miller’s focused attack on Ruiz’s body left him exposed which the former took advantage of by landing clean hooks and crosses to the head.

Ruiz looked completely exhausted in the fight, showing glimpses of his boxing prowess in spurts. Although some punches landed flush on Miller’s face, it did not faze him at all. In the end, one judge scored the fight 116-112 in favor of Miller, and the other two judges scored the bout 114-114. After the fight, Ruiz revealed the reason behind his lackluster performance.

The fifth-round game-changer!

On his walk back to the tunnel following the fight, Ruiz gave a rundown of the bout to DAZN reporter Akin Reyes. He revealed the exact moment he injured his hand, which changed the trajectory of the fight. “In the fifth round, I was struggling so much I kept holding and holding. I couldn’t counter like I wanted to. I landed a big right hand to his temple, and that’s how the sh*t hurts bro.” The hand injury slowed him down in the fight, and he couldn’t inflict as much damage as he wanted to on his opponent.

“It was getting to me. I couldn’t land my right hand. But, I did my best bro,” he further stated. Then the interviewer asked if the punches landed by Miller during the fight “hurt” to which the Mexican-American boxer replied, “They all hit hard bro! I was taking all his punches. It was slow, I see all the punches but like I said I couldn’t react with the hand like this (shows off his badly injured hand)”

The 34-year-old fighter emphasized that he tried to do his “best” even though his right hand was in a terrible condition. “I did my best, seven rounds, I don’t even know my hand is fractured or broken,” Ruiz stated frustratingly. Nonetheless, ‘The Destroyer’ agreed with the decision of the judges and accepted that “it was a good draw”. However, he wanted to watch the tapes back to have a better understanding of the results. But, Ruiz believes he could have beaten Miller if he didn’t injure his hand.” I know I could have beat him. I think I could have done a lot more if the shit wasn’t broken,” Ruiz said convincingly.

The boxer got into the ring after a two-year-long hiatus. This is Andy Ruiz Jr.’s first fight after his victory against Luis Ortiz. The ring rust along with the mishap with his hand spoiled his hopes of having an impressive return fight. Now, it remains to be seen how long his horrible hand injury will keep him away from the squared circle having just made his comeback after so many years.

Meanwhile, ‘Big Baby’ Miller was not ready to accept the judge’s decision.

Daylight robbery?

Miller felt like he did enough to win the fight. He did well to control the pace of the fight and was the clear aggressor who landed some pretty good shots on his opponent. So much so, that Miller even won on one judge’s scorecard who scored the fight 116-112. But the other two judges scored the bout 114-114. overriding the score in favor of Miller.

During the in-ring interview,  the New York native said, “I know I did enough to win. “I threw more punches. I had him backing up the entire fight. It’s called effective aggression. I kept the pressure on and I hit him with the more effective punches. I had the fight in the bag.” Calling boxing a “dirty game”, he hinted at favoritism in the judges’ decision.

Nonetheless, Ruiz wants a rematch, and it is now up to HE Turki Alalshikh to decide if he wants to run the matchup back. Do you think that Miller was robbed of a win in the fight? More so, do you want a rematch between Miller and Ruiz? Let us know in the comment section below.