This was Wednesday, at a press conference for his first fight in more than two years. No one knows better than Robles, the trainer who guided him to his historic upset of Anthony Joshua in June 2019, how Ruiz underachieved during the ensuing seven years.

The former unified heavyweight champion has fought just four times since he stopped Joshua in the seventh round at Madison Square Garden. Ruiz regrets his haphazard preparation for his immediate rematch with Joshua, his overall inactivity and many other factors that have contributed to him becoming a cautionary tale about wasted talent.

Ruiz is 2-1-1 since he seized the biggest opportunity of his career, but Jarrell Miller seemingly did enough to beat the Imperial, California, native in his last fight in August 2024. Miller, who Ruiz replaced as Joshua’s opponent a month before the fight, settled for a majority draw.

That didn’t stop Eddie Hearn, Joshua’s career-long promoter, from signing Ruiz to a contract in July.

Ruiz (35-2-1, 22 KOs) will make his Matchroom Boxing debut against Poland’s Damian Knyba (17-1, 11 KOs) on Friday night at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.

“It’s legacy,” Ruiz told Hearn when asked during the press conference what brought him back to boxing. “Legacy and me proving [to] myself that I am capable of doing everything right and to be a champion again. I had all the belts and I lost them all because of my [lack of dedication], not being disciplined. So, now that I’m disciplined and I’m dedicated and I’m hungry. I want those belts back.”

Ruiz demonstrated that dedication Thursday, when the likable, talented ex-champion stepped on the scale at 254.3 pounds, his lowest weight since he came in at 252¼ for his 10-round points victory over Kevin Johnson in July 2018. He weighed 283½ for his rematch with Joshua in December 2019, 15½ more than the first fight, and lost a wide unanimous decision.

The problem for Ruiz is this is more about the wait than the weight.

He’ll turn 37 on September 11, and much of his physical prime was wasted. Robles is back in his corner and there have, of course, been older heavyweight champions.

But nothing Ruiz has done inside or outside the ring since that incredible night seven years ago indicates that version of him still exists.

He is more than a 2-1 favorite to beat the 6-foot-8, 255.5-pound Knyba, who was stopped in the third round of his last bout by WBC champ Agit Kabayel on January 10 in Oberhausen, Germany. If he beats Knyba, Hearn will do everything possible to guide him back to another title shot in what’s now a wide-open division.

Based on his history since that night he broke Hearn’s heart, however, the odds seem stacked against Ruiz redeeming himself.

Katie Taylor didn’t sound completely committed to retirement during an appearance on “Inside The Ring” on Monday.

The two-division undisputed champion claimed she would “always consider every opportunity” when asked about possibly boxing Claressa Shields at the catch weight of 157 pounds. Shields suggested this on the show the previous week. We can only hope the Irish legend simply played along for the sake of an interesting segment.

Fighting Shields several years ago, when she entertained meeting Taylor somewhere between the junior middleweight limit of 154 pounds and the welterweight maximum of 147, would’ve been a bad idea. Shields (19-0, 4 KOs) would dominate Taylor (25-1, 6 KOs) at 157. And the last thing Taylor, 40, needs is another physically taxing battle before she begins the rest of her life.

Besides, the 2012 Olympian is getting exactly what she always wanted in what has been promoted as her final fight, an appearance at iconic Croke Park in Dublin. After four straight fights against Chantelle Cameron and Amanda Serrano, both of whom she faced back-to-back from 2023 to last year, Taylor will understandably box a lesser opponent in France’s Flora Pili (12-0, 2 KOs) on Saturday night (DAZN; 7 p.m. BST; 2 p.m. ET).

It won’t matter one bit to an enormous, adoring crowd of 83,000 that Taylor is a consensus 20-1 favorite to beat Pili.

That should be more than enough to send one of the classiest, most accomplished female fighters in boxing history into retirement feeling fulfilled.

Vito Mielnicki and Austin “Ammo” Williams won’t fight for a middleweight title in the co-feature before Ruiz encounters Knyba on Friday night, yet theirs is a classic crossroads clash for both of them.

Mielnicki needs to legitimize himself as a 160-pound contender against the most imposing opponent of his seven-year career. Even at just 24, a loss to Williams would be a significant setback for a fighter who has shown improvement since his majority draw with Connor Coyle, who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs after they fought 18 months ago in New York.

Williams, 30, isn’t exactly old, either. Nevertheless, a loss to Mielnicki would be his third since June 2024 and would eliminate any realistic chance he’d have to earn another title shot at any point in the foreseeable future.

Williams (20-2, 13 KOs) lost his last bout by unanimous decision to WBC champ Carlos Adames (25-1-1, 18 KOs) on March 21 in Orlando, Florida. He is still a slight favorite (-125/+100) to beat Mielnicki (23-1, 13 KOs), a Roseland, New Jersey, native who will fight at nearby Prudential Center for the sixth time.

■ Moses Itauma’s implosion against Filip Hrgovic undoubtedly did irrevocable damage to the immediate future of the heavyweight division. His loss resembled Wladimir Klitschko’s TKO defeat to Lamon Brewster more than the eventual long-reigning heavyweight champion’s TKO loss to Corrie Sanders 13 months earlier. That should still give Itauma’s handlers hope that the 21-year-old southpaw can learn from this very costly lesson, train properly and more carefully fight his way to another title shot at some point. This obviously doesn’t mean Itauma will come anywhere close to matching Klitschko’s success. But before writing off Itauma entirely, keep in mind that Klitschko was stopped three times prior to making 18 consecutive title defenses from 2006-15.

■ If you haven’t seen lightweight contender Alan Chaves fight live, the hard-hitting Argentine southpaw is in tough on the Ruiz-Knyba undercard. Chaves’ highlight-reel, third-round knockout of Mexico’s Miguel Madueno four months ago generated a lot of expectations. Dominican southpaw Eridson Garcia tested undefeated 135-pound contender Andres Cortes in his last fight, though, and is the most capable opponent of Chaves’ five-year career. The 10-round bout between Chaves (22-0, 19 KOs) and Garcia (23-2, 14 KOs) will be part of the main card DAZN will stream internationally (1 a.m. BST) and TNT will air in the United States (8 p.m. ET).

■ The Netflix executives who believe the Tyson Fury-Joshua showdown belongs in the United States need not look any further than Croke Park on Saturday night to understand why they’re wrong.