Andy Ruiz Jr defies dad for Mercs and perks of success
Andy Ruiz Jr has been unable to park his taste for expensive cars, despite his father’s pleadings to stop wasting his money.
When his son arrived home in a white Rolls Royce, Andres Ruiz Sr feared the boy who once mixed cement for him was losing the run of himself.
"I told him 'Andy, this is your last car, don't buy any more,'" he told BBC Sport. "I said, if anything, buy a Rolls Royce and rent it out, make money. You can make $30,000 a month on it."
Ruiz Jr will earn more than $10m for tonight’s Saudi Arabia rematch with Anthony Joshua, but his father wants him to retain the respect for money he grew up with.
"Like a father, I told him to stay humble - don't spend the money, invest it in houses.”
While Ruis Jr hangs on most of what his father tells him, this advice seems to have fallen on deaf ears. The 30-year-old recently bought added a Mercedes G550 jeep to his collection, at a price tag of $100,000.
It’s a far cry from his early days since Ruiz worked for his dad, who runs his own property development business.
"He was mixing cement," said Ruiz Sr, who emigrated from Mexico to the US when he was eight. "I told him 'do you want boxing or to mix cement?'
"He came from a good background. He lived in a nice house. I bought a nice car for him when he was young but I didn't try to give everything to him— he had to work for things."
