[2] The belt was vacated by Tyson Fury, who was battling depression and drug issues and hadn't fought since November when he beat Wladimir Klitschko to snare the WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, IBO, and The Ring magazine titles.

Discussions and negotiations began after Fury was expected to be stripped of his WBO title over inactivity and testing positive for cocaine.

[5] With his sudden announcement that he would relinquish his heavyweight world titles due to his issues with various problems, it was unclear exactly how the WBA, and WBO would go about filling the vacancies.

It had been well-documented that the last time they met was during a sparring session in Las Vegas two years prior, Ruiz was said to have rattled the jaw of Parker so badly that he could not eat properly for three days.

[10] There was also speculation that the fight would be moved overseas when Auckland Council turned down Duco's bid for public funding.

This meant that there was a chance the contest would be held in California, with Ruiz's promoter Arum giving Duco a seven-day deadline to find the supposed shortfall of several hundred thousand dollars.

Martin Snedden said the price of hosting the fight was around $4 million mark, and that this had not been reached despite the sponsor backing.

Tony Weeks served as the referee,[13] and Ramon Cerdan, Salven Lagumbay and Ingo Barrabas were the ringside judges.

Digicel Samoa chief executive Rory Condon, TV3 owner Hans Joe Keil and TV3 managing director Verona Parker officially announced the partnership with a sponsorship of the broadcast worth approximately WS$30,000 tālā.

In round six, Parker landed a hard right hand which Ruiz responded later with body shots.

The following afternoon of the fight, Sky television announced that they were taking legal action against a large number of people for streaming the event online illegally.

The broadcaster and promoter Duco Events have been battling to stop people illegally streaming Parker's fights.

The day before, a court ruled against seven individuals found to have unlawfully streamed July's fight between Parker and Solomon Haumono.

After the belt arrived in New Zealand, it toured Hamilton, Tauranga, Rotorua, Hastings, Palmerston North, Wellington, Nelson, Christchurch, Invercargill, Dunedin, New Plymouth and Whangārei.

[19] Ruiz handled the belt during a promotion event, saying feeling the prize gave him motivation for the fight.

Parker's camp showed very minimal interest in giving Ruiz another shot when a path towards bigger fights in England could be possible.

Duco's David Higgins said the criticism was "crap", and that the public deserved to be told the full story.