New heavyweight champion Andy Ruiz is absolutely obsessed with Snickers bars

It takes a lot to fuel a world champion. Drive, determination, the will to win. These are all characteristics that sport’s upper echelon possess in spades. However, usually lagging some way down the list of desirable obsessions, comes chocolate. It may be delicious and nigh on irresistible in certain circumstances, but it doesn’t tend to be helpful if your job is to be faster, stronger and fitter than everybody else. Unless, apparently, you want to knock out Anthony Joshua.

When Andy Ruiz Jr shocked the world last Saturday night, everyone began asking the same question. Namely, how can a man who looks like he has the same attitude to training as I do defeat someone who many fancied as the finest fighter of his generation? The answer, it seems, lies as much in candy as it does in commitment and punching people.

For years now, the previously unheralded Mexican fighter has been an unpaid advocate for Snickers chocolate bars. He has mentioned them unsolicited in interviews, produced them on screen at opportune moments and even hounded them on Twitter for a sponsorship. To say that Andy Ruiz likes Snickers would be like calling his defeat of AJ “slightly surprising” – the mother of all understatements.

When pressed over why he remains such a Snickers devotee in the press conference prior to the big Madison Square Gardens bout, Ruiz revealed that, “My dad would always give me a Snickers before a fight. It gives me energy. It gives me everything I need to get the win,” adding that, “For sure I will be eating this when I go out to fight Anthony Joshua.”

Despite being a world class sportsman, Ruiz’ amorous overtures towards the Mars cooperation have previously fallen on deaf ears. Even though he has done seemingly everything possible to secure a sponsorship, he has been resolutely ignored. Until now, in the aftermath of his glorious victory, the brand sent him a message over social media, stating, “Congrats again on the upset @Andy_destroyer1 !  Victory is sweet, but so is the package we are sending you,” suggesting that Ruiz’ chocolatey dreams may be about to come true. It just goes to show that sometimes all the training in the world can’t compare to a lot of heart and a little bit of peanut-based candy.