Wilder Vs. Ruiz Could Happen In January, Eubank Jr. Joins The Top 10 P4P List

In today’s boxing news, Malik Scott has talked up a fight between Deontay Wilder and Andy Ruiz Jr. for January.

Talks over a fight had been ongoing ever since the WBC had ordered the fight as a title eliminator. However, that was scrapped after both fighters could not agree on purses. Wilder’s side had offered Ruiz a 70-30 split.

Meanwhile, the Mexican demanded a 50-50 deal to reflect the fact that he was a former unified heavyweight champion. As those issues could not get resolved, it was difficult to see the fight being made unless there was a compromise. However, Scott was optimistic that something could happen.

Wilder Vs. Ruiz

“Ruiz is an option. We may go with Ruiz. Don’t be surprised if we went with Andy Ruiz in January and knocked him out, and then see what we can do from there. Andy Ruiz is available, and he was available four months ago, and we gave him an offer. So, we’ll see.

“He [Ruiz] was saying he wanted to fight Deontay, but when you say you want to fight Deontay, you have to be ready to sign a contract. Who is available for Deontay because everyone at the highest level [Tyson Fury & Oleksandr Usyk] is tied up with other big fights. So that’s the frustrating part,” Scott

If the bout cannot get made, Scott did indicate his desire for Wilder to potentially face Zhilei Zhang. So much so that Scott talked up the prospect of Wilder facing Zhang even in China.

While the bout would no doubt offer a lucrative opportunity, it would also put Wilder in line to win the WBO interim belt. And in doing so, give the American the chance to face Oleksandr Usyk or Tyson Fury for all of the belts.

Eubank Jr. Joins P4P List

Meanwhile, Chris Eubank Jr. has made the top ten pound-for-pound list of boxers following his win over Liam Smith.

Eubank Jr. stopped the Liverpudlian in the tenth round in order to gain revenge on Smith, who had stopped the boxer in their first bout.

The win was also significant in that it was the first time that Eubank had teamed up with his new trainer, Brian McIntyre. In the aftermath of the fight, Eubank called out many big names including Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin.

And now his new ranking may go some way into securing those big fights. According to BoxRec, Eubank has made his way into the top 10. With that being said, there was the full list.

List Of Fighters

1 Terence Crawford

2 Canelo Alvarez

3 Dmitry Bivol

4 Naoya Inoue

5 Gervonta Davis

6 Devin Haney

7 Emanuel Navarrete

8 Shakur Stevenson

9 Chris Eubank Jr

10 Teofimo Lopez

The rankings have raised a few eyebrows in that big names such as Oleksandr Usyk and Artur Beterbiev were absent. The former is a unified heavyweight champion, who remains undefeated.

While the latter is the current unified light heavyweight champion, who has never lost a bout. And yet, their absence from the list was just as telling as Eubank’s inclusion.