Andy Ruiz and Luis Ortiz will keep the same destination for their new fight date.

As previously reported by BoxingScene.com, the heavyweight clash will top a Fox Sports Pay-Per-View event on September 4, which changed from a previously targeted August 13 date. The event will still take place at Crypto.com Arena (formerly Staples Center) in Los Angeles, Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) officials confirmed Tuesday afternoon in the form of a ticket sale announcement.

Tickets for the event are available for pre-sale beginning Wednesday, 10:00 a.m. PT. The pre-sale will run through 10:00 p.m. PT, available for purchase on AXS.com using codes BOXING or CRYTPO.  

General ticket sales will begin Thursday 10:00 a.m. PT, also on AXS.com.

Ruiz (34-2, 22KOs) has not fought since a twelve-round decision victory over Chris Arreola in their battle of California-based Mexican heavyweights last May 1 in Carson, California.

The fight was the first for Ruiz since his two-fight series with Anthony Joshua (24-2, 22KOs) before the pandemic, having knocked out the Brit in the seventh round of their June 2019 WBA/IBF/WBO/IBO heavyweight title fight at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The rematch saw Ruiz showing up grossly out of shape and dropping a lopsided decision to Joshua six months later in Saudi Arabia.

A fight with Ortiz (33-2, 28KOs) was discussed for May 2020, only for the global pandemic to shut down those plans and the sport as a whole. The fight never came back around, with Ortiz having scored two knockouts in that time—a 45-second blitzing of Alexander Flores in November 2020 and an off-the-canvas, sixth-round knockout of former IBF heavyweight titlist Charles Martin on New Year’s Day in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

In between those two fights, Ortiz—a Cuban southpaw based out of Miami—was ringside for Ruiz’s win over Arreola, eager to move forward with such a fight. Those plans were curbed, only materializing earlier this year but not until after it was learned that Ruiz initially agreed to a rust-shaking fight with Tyrone Spong. The fight was announced by Triller Fight Club, who was prepared to present a July 16 PPV event from Plaza de Toros in Mexico City.

To the company’s credit, Triller immediately walked back its announcement once learning that Ruiz already committed to a fight with Ortiz that was not revealed at the time.

The event marks the first Fox Sports-branded boxing telecast since February 5, when Keith Thurman outpointed Mario Barrios atop a Fox Sports PPV from Michelob ULTRA Arena in Las Vegas. PBC on Fox has traditionally run a pre-Labor Day card on the Sunday of the holiday weekend, though previously limited to its free-to-air Fox network.

A lead-in show on its lineal network is expected for the forthcoming event, though further details of such bouts on that portion of the PPV undercard were not made available as this goes to publish.

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox