Joseph Parker vs Andy Ruiz set for Dec. 10 for WBO title

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND - 2016/09/22: New Zealand heavyweight boxer Joseph Parker speaks to the media during the press conference. He is schedule to fight against giant Russian boxer Alexander Dimitrenko on Oct 1. (Photo by Shirley Kwok/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images) /

On Thursday, the World Boxing Organization announced that they will sanction Australian heavyweight Joseph Parker and Mexican-American contender Andy Ruiz to fight for the organization’s vacant belt. The fight will go down Dec. 10 in Auckland, New Zealand.

As of last month, the WBO heavyweight belt was owned by British heavyweight Tyson Fury. However, after testing positive for cocaine, he dropped the titles that he won last year against Wladimir Klitschko.

Since Fury needs time to deal with his issues and is unable to give Klitschko a rematch, negotiations began for a possible showdown between Klitschko and Anthony Joshua. The goal for that fight was to get all of Fury’s vacant belts on the line, so that way Klitschko had a chance to regain all of the belts. But at the WBO convention in Puerto Rico, the board unanimously voted to have Parker and Ruiz fight for the belt instead.

Parker (21-0, 18 KO’s), who is the No. 1 contender for the WBO, is coming off of a third round knockout of Alexander Dimitrenko, and will most likely be the betting favorite in the matchup. On Oct. 10, Parker posted a picture with himself with Bob Arum, the CEO of Top Rank Boxing. The photo, which was captioned, “Good seeing @BobArum today in Las Vegas. BIG announcement coming soon”. The tweet might lead someone to believe that Parker was going to sign with Arum and Top Rank, but now it is apparent that he was just negotiating with Arum for the Ruiz fight.

Ruiz (29-0, 19 KO’s), who is the No. 3 contender, is coming off of a decision win over Franklin Lawrence in September, has a chance to become the first fighter of Mexican decent to win a heavyweight championship. Ruiz was supposed to fight Hughie Fury in Manchester on Oct. 29, but decided not to go through with the fight for undisclosed reasons. Ruiz has a history of pulling out of fights for reasons other that an injury. Plus, he also has a history of not showing up in quite the best shape for his fights. Let’s hope Ruiz sticks in for this one, because it should be a great fight!

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