Joshua rematch with Ruiz Jr won’t happen in Saudi Arabia reckons Lennox Lewis, despite fight announcement

HEAVYWEIGHT legend Lennox Lewis does not believes Anthony Joshua's rematch with Andy Ruiz Jr will happen in Saudi Arabia.

Promoter Eddie Hearn and AJ caused huge controversy by announcing the highly-anticipated December bout will take place in the Middle East.

But Ruiz, who holds three of Joshua's belts, has yet to make any public announcement.

And it's for that reason why Lennox believes the fight will not go ahead in Diriyah.

Writing on Twitter, he said: "Until I see see both fighters signed on the bottom line, I don’t believe it.

"Although I wouldn’t mind seeing it in Mexico, I would think Hearn would angle for the Cardiff or Wembley, or worse comes to worse, NYC again."

Ruiz's team have already admitted that "nothing has been confirmed."

It’s been reported that the hold up is linked to the fight purse after The Athletic said that Ruiz "isn’t expected to sign off on the rematch in Saudi Arabia unless he’s guaranteed a significantly higher purse".

Original terms agreed before he shocked the world and battered Joshua in June means he could take home half of what AJ does from the dust up in the desert, around £8m.

Saudi investors stumped up £83m to bring the heavyweight contest to the Middle East.

Ruiz's trainer Manny Robles remained tight-lipped over the bout but admitted there was a reason why no announcement had been made from their side.

He told FightHype: "You haven’t heard anything from Andy Ruiz and there’s a reason why.

“You’ve got one party (Team Joshua) saying that we’re fighting December 7, you’ve got the promoter (Eddie Hearn) going out on a limb saying we’re fighting December 7 in Saudi Arabia but you haven’t heard anything from the other party which is Andy Ruiz - everybody has to hold off and wait.

“But at the end of the day we’re willing to fight any place anywhere, that’s what a true champion does, if we got to go to Wales or England - in this case Saudi Arabia - back to New York, we got to do what we got to do."