Boxing
Manny Robles says Al Haymon advised Andy Ruiz Jr. to fire him after Anthony Joshua loss
The person who led Andy Ruiz Jr. to the monumental seventh-round upset over Anthony Joshua in June to become the IBF, WBA (super), and WBO heavyweight champion won't be the one to help get him back to the mountain top.
In a conversation with ESPN.com, Manny Robles revealed that he would no longer be working with Ruiz after he came in out of shape, weighing in at 283.5 pounds, and was sluggish in losing his belts to Joshua by a lopsided decision in December.
For Robles, he could see the writing on the wall even before the rematch took place as Ruiz didn't start preparing for Joshua until the media tour concluded in the first week of September.
"I've seen it coming, I'll be honest with you," Robles said to ESPN late Wednesday night. "I've seen it coming during camp. I saw it coming. Andy was just doing whatever the hell he wanted to do. The dad, obviously with him being the manager, he just had no control over his son. None of us had control of him, for that matter.
"So I just saw it coming, it wasn't going to work because he wasn't listening. He's not listening to me. He's not listening to his dad. He's not listening to anybody. He said it himself after the press conference [in Saudi Arabia]. He apologized to me, to the dad, because he f---ed up. So I figured, 'OK, it's only a matter of time before I get the call.' Fortunately for me, Andy took the blame on himself and didn't sit there like a majority of fighters and blame the coach."
Why the guy who became the first fighter of Mexican descent to become heavyweight champion want to let go of the individual who helped revitalize his career after losing a WBO title bout to Joseph Parker in December 2016?
Robles was told in a Wednesday meeting with Ruiz's father, Andy Ruiz Sr. that his son's advisor, Al Haymon was the one who decided for the younger Ruiz to replace Robles.
"They apparently told them that they didn't want the same thing to repeat itself, again," Robles said. "It is what it is. I don't know what to tell you. It's not the first time it's happened to me. I'm sure it's not the first time it's happened to other coaches. It happens time and time again. We always end up getting the short end of the stick. But it is what it is. You keep moving forward."
While Robles' run with Ruiz has come to an end, he looks back fondly of the time they had together.
"I'm absolutely grateful and blessed to have been able to experience everything that I was able to experience in 2019," Robles said. "I mean, we made history, and I have to be thankful for that. I have to be thankful to Andy and his dad for giving me the opportunity to be part of something special, to have made history -- for him to become the first Mexican heavyweight champion of the world.
"I really believed coming into the second fight that we were going to be able to do it again. But obviously, you can't do that if the fighter isn't there, if the fighter doesn't want it. I did everything I could as a coach, as a teacher, as a friend, but again, as I said, if the fighter's not there, what can I do?"
