Promoter Bob Arum, who looks after Pacquiao, whom he described as "the senator from the Philippines", as well as Ruiz Jr, smiled benignly throughout. He celebrates his 85th birthday today and rarely has a man looked as comfortable in his surroundings as he did. He has seen and heard it all before.
Parker's promoter David Higgins started things off by saying of Parker's challenge for the vacant WBO heavyweight title at Vector Arena: "It's not just about winning it, we want to unify it and go after the other three [belts] and try to become the first undisputed heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis."
Arum, who splits his time between Las Vegas and his home in Beverly Hills, had some advice: "I don't put money on fights, but I give Andy a hell of a shot to win the fight, yeah. The one thing I can tell everyone out here... is the best way to save money is to not bet on fights, really and truly."
There were no on-stage fireworks - the fighters say they are saving those for Saturday - but they appear primed.
"This is my chance, I didn't come all the way here to New Zealand to lose or anything like that," Ruiz Jr said.
"I know a lot of people are under-estimating me because of how I look or how I am.
"On December 10 I'm going to take that belt back to Mexico and the United States."
"I can promise you that we're not under-estimating Andy," Parker's trainer Kevin Barry said.
Ruiz Jr replied: "Barry says they're not underestimating me but a lot of people here are. That gives me more motivation."
"We're not underestimated Andy Ruiz. He's a great fighter and he's in shape... on December 10, like he said, there's going to be a lot of fireworks," Parker said, to applause.
He added, before the photos started - including one of him and Ruiz Jr's mother - "people say there's a lot of pressure, but I love pressure, when there's pressure I perform better".
"When the bell rings, that's when the switch goes on and we want to knock each other out."
The big show is here at last.
