Column: Heavyweight champ Andy Ruiz Jr. seems fit, focused in San Diego appearance

Sharing the green room with Jennifer Lawrence before TV’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Podcast time with former champion Mike Tyson. A parade slicing through his home of Imperial.

The blur that swallowed Andy Ruiz Jr. after he became boxing’s first heavyweight champion of Mexican descent created the expected swirl of distractions.

Trainer Manny Robles decided to unplug the noise, dragging Ruiz to Guadalajara — away from family, away from friends, away from TV cameras and anything else that might chip away at focus as he prepared for a rematch with former champion Anthony Joshua on Dec. 7 in Saudi Arabia.

“Being over there in Guadalajara, it was something different,” Ruiz said Saturday during a press conference at The Boxing Club East Village. “They had me locked in a cage like that so I could be an animal inside of the ring.”

The 1,300-mile move for a month-long training camp was about mental adjustments as much as raw mileage. Five days a week, Robles assigned road work with runs of at least 30 minutes in the mountains looming over the Mexican city.

Ruiz chewed up the miles at about 5,500 feet above sea level, while there was no one other than Robles to chew on his ear.

“The most unique thing we’ve done so far is leave for Mexico,” Robles said. “Normally, Mexican fighters come and train in America. We did the total opposite. I felt it was important to get him out of comfort zone.

“I thought it was important to get him away from the media, from friends and family and all the distractions that he can have here in the U.S.”

When Ruiz faced Joshua on June 1 at Madison Square Garden, he was a late sub with just five weeks to prepare after stopping Alexander Dimitrenko. Now, Ruiz can milk 12 weeks of preparation to defense his four championship belts.

This lap, there’s time to plan and train and dial in the details. Team Ruiz now employees a chef, a nutritionist and a physical therapist. Robles said he weighs 278, about 10 pounds heavier than when he fought Joshua, while appearing leaner with training that re-proportioned his frame.

They’ll begin to taper down as the fight nears. Ruiz is expected to enter the ring between 255 and 260 — or roughly 10 pounds less than his first match against Joshua.

“I’m sick and tired of salmon right now,” Ruiz said.

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When Ruiz stunned boxing by knocking down Joshua four times, many marveled at his body shape that was not, well, prototypical for a champion. He was a relative unknown. Few understood the speed of his hands or the TNT waiting in his fists.

This time, Ruiz will not be able to sneak up on anyone.

And he’s more than fine with that.

“When I win the rematch, everyone’s going to know, ‘Wow, this is not a fluke. This is the real deal,’ ” he said.

Ruiz, now 33-1 with 22 knockouts, said he’s watched the fight about “100 times.” You get the sense he has not become intoxicated with the money or stardom. Dodging the trap of living his punching past, he insists eyes and jabs are aimed fully forward. And you believe him.

As he glanced at the four title belts on a table, he made a promise.

“I’m going to die trying to keep them,” Ruiz said.

That’s what remains most fascinating about a championship defense unlike almost any other.

Ruiz rattles norms about championship body type. He shakes off any perceived disadvantages of rising from hard-scrabble Imperial Valley. He reeks of confidence, but is disarming with a grin and wink more suited to a happy-go-lucky kid.

“I’m just a little-big kid with a dream,” he said.

The strategy against Joshua, Robles and Ruiz said, will be to cut off the ring and be as suffocating as possible. Stay close. Keep firing. Let Joshua know the guy he lost to the first time is just getting started.

The message: Grabbing those belts comes with a high price.

“I told Andy, ‘Listen, this is the eighth round,’ ” Robles said. “We stopped him in the seventh (in the first fight). This is the start of the eighth round. Pedal to the metal, man.”

The greatest unknown for Ruiz is which Joshua decides to climb through the ring ropes.

“It’s hard to say,” Robles said. “Is he going to stand there and fight Andy? Maybe not. Maybe he’s going to choose to box, stick and move and keep him at a distance.”

The chess match intrigues.

“I know he’s going to have some tricks up his sleeve, but so are we man,” Ruiz said.

This, after all, is no time for parades or podcasts.