Andy Ruiz vs Tyrone Spong isn’t happening next, despite Triller’s recent announcement.
Triller recently announced a peculiar bout between former boxing heavyweight champion Andy Ruiz Jr. and former kickboxing star Tyrone Spong. The match up is already questionable as it is — Spong is years separated from his kickboxing heyday and hasn’t boxed since 2019 — but apparently that July 16 bout isn’t going to push through.
Just a couple of days since the announcement, ESPN reports that a contract issue has scrapped all of Triller’s plans as Ruiz had already previously signed on to face Luis Ortiz at PBC.
Ortiz previously slammed Ruiz after originally hearing about the Triller match up.
“[Ruiz is] a coward,” Ortiz told El Nuevo Herald on Thursday. “He knew how badly I wanted to fight him, but he decided to take an easy route. … A fight is coming that nobody is interested in and that is useless in his career.”
As Ortiz vs Ruiz is now set to happen next, Triller released a statement about the contractual issue with PBC.
“We are working amicably with PBC to make sure Ruiz honors his obligations to both parties,” Triller Fight Club president David Tetreault told ESPN. “Had we known PBC intended to fight him prior, we would have never chosen this date.
“We enjoy a good relationship with PBC and we are currently working to identify an optimal date for rescheduling the fight. The date Triller lands on will be in collaboration with PBC and their calendar.”
Triller has a growing reputation for putting on a lot of gimmicky and even dangerous match ups. Some of their rare attempts at booking legitimate contenders and champions never pushed through, including that Lopez vs Kambosos title bout that went to DAZN.