Dumb, Double-Down Dumb: Ruiz throws loyalty and trainer Manny Robles under the bus

By Norm Frauenheim-

Andy Ruiz Jr., who needs as many friends as he can find, fired the best one he had.

He fired Manny Robles.

The move isn’t exactly a surprise. It didn’t even surprise Robles. Let’s just say it was dumb, double-down dumb.

Ruiz, the first heavyweight champion of Mexican descent, has followed up his embarrassing rematch loss to Anthony Joshua with a public-relations debacle hard to explain and harder to excuse. A People’s Champ lost more than a title. He lost the people.

Those people will be harder to win back than titles. There are plenty of belts, even a few that might fit Ruiz’ expandable waistband. But loyalty, once squandered, is hard to regain. Ruiz grew up in a community where loyalty is a currency valued more than money. In Loyalty We Trust. You hear it from Canelo Alvarez in his criticism of Oscar De La Hoya.

Canelo delivered a stinging rip of De La Hoya in an interview with The Athletic before his Nov. 2 stoppage of Sergey Kovalev. He called him disloyal, yet he stays with De La Hoya, loyal to his commitment to the Golden Boy promoter. He stays with his original trainer and manager, Eddy and Chepo Reynoso. He has been with them and evolved with them from the beginning and throughout criticism of their work in the wake of a loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in September 2013.

Canelo is the reigning example of what to do.

Ruiz is the sad face of what not to do.

His fans would have forgiven him for his one-sided decision loss to Joshua in a rematch of Ruiz’ Rocky-like upset in June at New York’s Madison Square Garden. They would have even forgiven him for partying more than training for the rematch. Who wouldn’t? They would have partied like a lottery winner, too. They identified with him, each and every flabby ounce. But firing his trainer is unforgivable.

Robles is a convenient fall guy for what happened in Saudi Arabia. He got thrown under that proverbial bus, which happens to be something else fans understand. They’ve been there, tossed aside and into the expendable exhaust.

“It is what it is, I don’t know what to tell you,’’ Robles told ESPN, which broke the story.  “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.”

Robles knows all about picking himself up. He did it after Oscar Valdez Jr. left him for Eddy Reynoso in August 2018. But the circumstances were different. Valdez moved on, still unbeaten and still a featherweight champion. He wasn’t coming off a loss and looking for a scapegoat.

Robles never expressed any anger at Valdez. Instead, he thanked Valdez. He called him friend and said he would always be a Valdez’ fan.

The split with Ruiz is different, both in proportion and style. Ruiz’ upset of Joshua and his subsequent loss were magnified, made bigger by untold multiples by a media captivated by an epic moment on a huge stage. In June, was the everyman, fat and fantastic all at once on an improbable night in New York. In Saudi Arabia, he was just a fat fool.

But Robles thanked him, too.

“Absolutely, look I’ve got to tell you I’m absolutely grateful and blessed to have been able to experience everything that I was able to experience in 2019,” Robles told ESPN. “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.’’

Thanks, Manny Robles, a good guy who got a raw deal.