Andy Ruiz, the man who condemned Anthony Joshua to his first ever professional defeat, suffered a horrific loss of his own on Friday night. 

The 36-year-old Mexican was left bruised and bloodied as he lost to Poland's Damian Knyba on his return to the ring after two years out.

Knyba unleashed heavy punch after punch in the seventh round but Ruiz managed to ride it out, after being saved by the bell, to lose by a unanimous points decision. 

Ruiz, who is now signed to British promoter Eddie Hearn, vowed to carry on despite losing his comeback fight to Knyba. The Pole now has a record of 18 wins and one defeat. 

Rewind to June 2019, and Ruiz shocked the boxing world by upsetting the odds to knock Joshua out in the seventh round at Madison Square Garden. 

Ruiz was a late stand-in for Jarrell Miller, who had failed a drugs test, and wasn't seen as a threat to Joshua's chances of remaining unbeaten and hanging on to his then IBF, WBO and WBA world heavyweight titles.

Joshua exacted revenge six months later and Ruiz has gone on to have just four more fights since due to injury problems, beating Chris Arreola and Luis Ortiz before drawing with Miller and now suffering his third loss. 

Ruiz said after Friday's defeat in New Jersey: 'It was just a long layoff, and it was a great opponent.

'I didn't want to take an easy fight, so that's why I took Damian. He's a big guy. But we've got to take risks. I've still got it in me, man. I've just got to stay active and I want to fight again.

'Every time I tried to come in, he'd hold me really tight, and I just couldn't let my combinations go.

'He played a good game plan, but I'd love to run it back and do things a lot different.'

The judges scored the fight 117-110, 114-113 and 114-113 in Knyba's favour.

It wasn't the night Hearn was hoping for after signing Ruiz this summer but much of his current focus is on trying to finalise Joshua's highly anticipated fight against British rival Tyson Fury. 

The bout has been proposed to take place in November after years of negotiations but the location of the fight appears to be a major sticking point. 

Hearn and Joshua are said to want the fight to take place at Wembley Stadium in London while the Fury camp are reportedly leaning towards Madison Square Garden in New York City.