Ruiz-Joshua 2 to Take Place in Saudi Arabia

Anthony Joshua will face unified world heavyweight champion Andy Ruiz Jr in their rematch in Saudi Arabia on 7 December, as the young Brit hopes to avenge his astonishing upset victory in the historic rematch.

The two heavyweight giants fought in New York in June, with Ruiz scoring a shocking seventh-round stoppage victory to hand Joshua his first professional loss.

Ruiz, who was knocked down in the third round before recovering and flooring Joshua four times, picked up the WBA, IBF, WBO and IBO world titles.

Joshua, a 2012 Olympic gold medalist who represented Britain and has conquered the likes of Wladimir Klitschko, wanted to stage a rematch in London in front of 100,000 fans. As a fallback option, he considered New York’s Madison Square Garden, the site of his stateside debut and first fight against Ruiz.

Ruiz pressed for a neutral location. Hearn ended up scoring a hefty site fee — a reported $40 million — from Skill Challenge Entertainment, the group bringing the fight to Saudi Arabia. That kind of sum could not be secured elsewhere, so the fight will take place in a country with a history of human rights violations.

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Cardiff's Principality Stadium had been among the options to host the rematch, but it was ruled out from the get go due to favoritism.  Joshua, 29, had said he wanted to fight in the Welsh capital, where he has previously fought in front of crowds of more than 70,000 people for his wins over Carlos Takam and Joseph Parker.

However, 29-year-old Ruiz, who was born in the United States but has Mexican heritage, had ruled out a fight taking place in the United Kingdom, due to the great home-field advantage Joshua would have over the first Mexican born heavyweight in history.