Ryan “The Bruiser” Rozicki (20-1-1, 19 KOs) will finally get his long-awaited world title shot as he takes on WBC crusierweight champion Badou “The Ripper” Jack (28-3-3, 17 KOs) at the Venue Riyadh Season in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on May 3rd in a scheduled twelve round bout. This fight will be part of the undercard of IBF/WBC/WBO super middleweight title holder Saul “Canelo” Alvarez’s main event fight against his mandatory opponent William Scull. These two bouts and others will be streamed live on DAZN PPV.
Daniel Otter of Three Lions Promotions won the lone purse bid ($320,000) in February for Jack to finally make his overdue mandatory defense against his fighter (Rozicki, who he has promoted since 2018, two years into his professional career). This matchup was planned for late April in Rozicki’s hometown of Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada, before being moved to the co-main event in Saudi Arabia.
“It will be an entertaining fight against Jack. He is not a guy who looks to run around, so he will come and fight and probably try to knock me out, so it will make for an entertaining fight if someone is trying to knock me out,” said Rozicki, who is ranked number one by the WBC, seventh by The Ring, and fourteenth by the WBO in the cruiserweight division. “The first few rounds will be tricky because he has so much experience. He is a small fighter coming up in weight [over the years], so he will be quicker than the guys I am used to fighting. However, once he makes a mistake trying to exchange or gets too comfortable, I can knock him out with one punch.”
Despite facing numerous challenges at obtaining a world title bout, including being the mandatory challenger for the WBC crusierweight belt over the last two years, Rozicki’s determination has not wavered, as he finally got his title shot. WBC cruiserweight champion Noel (Norair) Gevor Milkaelian (Mikaeljan) refused to fight him, pulling out of five consecutive fights. Despite this, the WBC did not strip Milkaelian of his title. Instead, they downgraded him to the “Champion in Recess” despite not defending his title in over sixteen months (November 2023) and not having an upcoming bout planned anytime soon.
“He straight up did not want to fight me. There were three straight pull-outs; the fourth time, there was no explanation, and then the fifth time, he told me he did not want to fight me in Canada,” Rozicki said.
Jack will be fighting for the first time in about two and a half years and making his first world title defense, as he held the title during this time away from boxing. The forty-one-year-old orthodox boxer born in Stockholm, Sweden, now living in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, defeated IIunga Junior Makabu via a twelfth-round technical knockout in February 2023. Jack dropped Makabu in the fourth and eleventh round. With the stoppage victory, he obtained the WBC crusierweight title in his fourth bout in the division, making him a three-division world champion (5-0-2 in world title fights at super middleweight, light heavyweight, and now cruiserweight). Jack has won six in a row, including four by knockout since dropping a twelve-round split decision to former world champion Jean Pascal in 2019.
Rozicki is unbeaten in his last eight bouts (including a win and draw with The Ring eighth-ranked fighter Yamil Alberto Peralta), winning six by knockout. His lone professional loss was a twelve-round unanimous decision (116-111, 115-112, and 115-112) to his former sparring partner (1-loss) heavyweight Oscar Rivas for the bridgerweight (a new weight class the WBC added in 2020 for fighters between 200 and 224 pounds, and the WBA later added this division) world title in 2021 in Rivas’s last professional fight.
“It was a good display of what I am made of. After this fight, I knew I belonged among the best of them, even heavyweight fighters,” said Rozicki, who fought for the first time past six rounds. “I held my own for twelve rounds. I hurt him a few times in this fight even though he had about forty pounds on me, so that gave me more confidence fighting as a crusierweight because my power was on display at the heavyweight division.”
In his last outing in December, Rozicki was held to a twelve-round majority draw (115-113 for Rozicki, 114-114, and 114-114) in his rematch with Peralta for the interim WBC crusierweight title. He overcame a badly swollen left eye that started to close early in the bout with aggressive power punching that hurt Peralta and prevented him from getting into any offensive rhythm.
“I believe that I got robbed. I won that fight. I thought I would have won at least eight, possibly nine rounds, because I used my aggression to neutralize his movement. I landed more power shots than he did, especially to the body. He did not land many punches, as most of his punches grazed me. I thought I outboxed him. He busted my eye up, but that usually happens in most of my fights,” Rozicki said.
In their first fight about three years ago, Rozicki defeated unbeaten Peralta en route to a ten-round split decision (97-93 and 95-94 for Rozicki and 95-94 for Peralta) for the vacant WBC International cruiserweight title. This was the only decision he has won in his career.
“Peralta got robbed in our first fight. He should have won that fight,” said Rozicki, who was honest about his performance, a rare trait in boxing. “When the WBC officials at ringside told me that they did not think I won, I told them that I did not want the belt if they did not believe I had legitimately won. So, I returned the title to the WBC officials, who then awarded it to Peralta” [even though he had lost the fight on the judges’ scorecards].
While Jack has the better boxing resume and is the more skilled fighter, the thirty-year-old orthodox boxer has a significant equalizer – his tremendous punching power in both his left and right hand. Rozicki has an impressive ninety-five percent knockout ratio. Of the nineteen fighters he has knocked out, eighteen have come inside the first three rounds, including his first twelve fights. Six of his knockouts have come in the first round.
The heavily tattooed, hard-working, old-school boxer recently got a new tattoo, “violence” on his forehead, right above his eyebrows. This tattoo perfectly encapsulates his fighting style, an all-out, aggressive, come-forward, offensive attack that focuses mainly on power-punching. He has a reckless abandonment for defense, where he is willing to take three punches to land one shot. While this fighting approach leaves him vulnerable to being cut and badly bruised in fights, it also allows him to land the knockout punch he has done throughout his career.
His knockouts have occurred in three divisions: heavyweight, bridgerweight, and cruiserweight, and some have come against fighters much heavier than he is as he struggled to find top-level boxers willing to fight him.
“It is difficult to find opponents in Canada because boxing is not as big as in other countries, so I would fight whoever I could, regardless of their weight class,” said Rozicki, who has fought three to four times a year for most of his career. “I have been an avoided opponent the last two years, not because of the fighters. I do not think fighters are scared or anything. I do not have a big enough name in the world yet for the top guys to take a risk fighting me without a massive payday, so until I break into the mainstream boxing scene, I am a silly fight for many fighters. They always find a way not to fight me. They usually do not take the fight because I am a high-risk fighter. After all, I am a puncher, and there is always a chance they could get knocked out.”
As Rozicki prepares for his best opponent, he has a new head trainer, Samuel Arnold II, who has been around the sport his whole life. Arnold II is the father (and trainer) of undefeated super middleweight prospect Samuel Arnold III (11-0, 7 KOs). Rozicki and Arnold II have been working hard in the hot Dallas, Texas, weather for the past several weeks, helping him acclimate to the warmer weather in Saudi Arabia as he prepares to fight for the first time outside Canada.
In his eighth professional fight (2018), Rozicki scored a first-round knockout over undefeated Abokan Bokpe for the NABA Canadian crusierweight title. He stopped Shawn Miller in the third round for the WBC International Silver crusierweight title, and then in his next fight, he beat undefeated Khetag Pliev, knocking him out in the second round (both fights took place in 2019). He made one title defense of the WBC International Silver crusierweight title with a third-round knockout over Vladimir Reznicek in 2020. Rozicki obtained a tenth-round knockout over Alante Green to claim the NABF cruiserweight title in 2023.
He has gained invaluable fighting experience by sparring with several skilled boxers, former light heavyweight world champion and now fellow countryman Eleider Alvarez (25-2, 13 KOs) and former heavyweight contender Adam Kownacki (20-4, 15 KOs).
For more information about Rozicki’s boxing career and upcoming fights, add him on X @RRpzicki, Instagram @Ryan_Rozicki, and Facebook/RyanRozickiBoxing.
“Despite starting boxing at fifteen and only having twenty-four amateur fights over six years, while being mostly self-trained, my career has progressed quicker than expected,” Rozicki said. “Seven fights in, I started fighting undefeated fighters, so I quickly jumped up the divisional rankings. In my fourteenth fight, I fought for a world title against Rivas, and now I can become the first Canadian native cruiserweight champion after I beat Jack.”
