December 7 is all set to be one of the biggest days in the boxing calendar year with two giants, Anthony Joshua and Andy Ruiz Jr taking the ring once again since facing each other last June.

However, a major change has been the selection of arena to stage the showcase event – this time being at a neutral venue in Saudi Arabia.

Joshua is really determined to regain lost glory and reclaim his belts which have been in possession of his rival, Ruiz Jr, for the last six months.

WBA [Super], IBF, WBO and IBO titles are all in the line with Andy Ruiz Jr too focused to continue his dominance over AJ, just like the previous encounter.

Former undisputed heavyweight champion Mike Tyson has now expressed his opinion on the high-profile clash, talking about the likelihood of AJ regaining his belts as well as Ruiz Jr’s weight loss.

Tyson believes Joshua must have viewed the last fight enough times and analysed what went wrong on the night in New York.

The 53-year-old said: “Obviously he [Joshua] knows what happened because I'm sure he's watched the films.

“Because if he's intelligent like I believe he is, he watched the films over and over of the last encounter he had with Ruiz. And he's worried, but he should be confident that he can be successful.”


Although both fighters will be going in clocking lesser weights than in the last bout, Ruiz Jr’s transformation has been quite significant.

But that has not impressed Tyson one bit.

The American icon asserted the weight issue would not have any sort impact in the fight from the Mexican-American champion’s perspective.

Tyson continued:

I just don't think that makes any sense,

“But everybody has their own thing, their vanity gets the best of them, they say 'Hey, I wanna look good doing this stuff', I don't know. But I'm a believer that if it's not broken, don't fix it.


“The only thing Ruiz has to do is do what he did last fight. That's all he has to live off of, from his memories, so to speak, from the last fight.”

Asked who would be his pick to register the win in just over a week’s time, Tyson considered the duo have equal chances, given who withstands the challenge thrown at them from their counterpart.

He ended by saying: “I don't know because anything is possible. They're both great human beings, I like both of them personally, but this is a fight and I just hope the best man wins.”