Video: Crowd brawls at Ruiz vs. Arreola, Cali’s first pandemic boxing show with live audience

Yesterday California welcomed back combat sports with a live crowd with the Andy Ruiz vs. Chris Arreola boxing card, which was held at the…

By: Tim Bissell | 3 years ago
Video: Crowd brawls at Ruiz vs. Arreola, Cali’s first pandemic boxing show with live audience
Bloody Elbow 2.0 | Anton Tabuena

Yesterday California welcomed back combat sports with a live crowd with the Andy Ruiz vs. Chris Arreola boxing card, which was held at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California. This was the first combat sports event to take place with a crowd in California since the COVID-19 pandemic began wreaking havoc on the sports world back in early 2020.

Due to California’s COVID-19 restrictions, the venue had a 33% capacity crowd. A small percentage of that small percentage weren’t just satisfied with watching fights happening the ring, they wanted them in the stands, too.

The Athletic’s Mike Coppinger was on the scene and he captured three separate brawls in the sparsely populated stands around him. Those are provided below for your viewing pleasure.

If those slugging it out in the stands paid attention they would notice Ruiz survive any early knockdown before pulling away on the scorecards to beat Arreola. This was Ruiz’s first fight since losing a rematch to Anthony Joshua. He famously upset the Brit in their first contest, in 2019, claiming the WBA (Super), IBF and IBO heavyweight titles.

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About the author
Tim Bissell
Tim Bissell

Tim Bissell is a writer, editor and deputy site manager for Bloody Elbow. He has covered combat sports since 2015. Tim covers news and events and has also written longform and investigative pieces. Among Tim's specialties are the intersections between crime and combat sports. Tim has also covered head trauma, concussions and CTE in great detail.

Tim is also BE's lead (only) sumo reporter. He blogs about that sport here and on his own substack, Sumo Stomp!

Email me at tim@bloodyelbow.com. Nice messages will get a response.

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