The Quietman

He was a around for a long time. Fought a lot of the top raters and had some good wins. Might even have been robbed in one of the Valuev fights. Probably top 10-13 for the era stretching from 2000 to 2009.

 

Terrible terrible terrible terrible

 

Lewis, Wlad, Byrd, and Vitali are the only ones clearly ahead of him.

 

Let's go 200-2010

Lewis
Vitali
Wlad
Byrd
Chagaev
Ruiz
Holyfield
Rahman
Peter
Valuev

 

Had some good wins though some are disputed and his style was frustrating

I thought he won the first Valuev fight

He faced a lot of top fighters in this span and only two guys Jones a great and Haye beat him him with total ease and that was late in his career (Tua did it in the 90's)

I'd say him and Byrd should be similarly ranked as they have some of the same wins though Byrd has Vitali depending on the credit you give him for it

I'd say both K bros Lewis are the obvious guys ahead of him as far as accomplishments

Head to head he was ugly but effective though you could argue that he could have lost points with the holding. I'd say Klitschkos Lewis Haye Always win. Chag Iggy Wilder Fury most likely beat him

I figure he beats Maskaev Stiverne Briggs

 

He beat two lineal heavyweight champions, which puts him up there with the better contenders through history, at least on paper.

He has the dubious honour of being the only heavyweight titlist, to lose to two former middleweights, while he was in the driving seat.

His paper record is good, but it is also very controversial.

That leaves him as a bit of an enigma really!

 

Disputed indeed!! In virtually any fight Ruiz had at the world class level after King maneuvered him into the ratings after Tua starched him, Ruiz blatantly violated the rules against excessive holding. Without King's influence, he most likely would have been disqualified in each of these fights, and certainly should have been.

Then, there are the three fights (Thunder, Holyfield II and Johnson) where Ruiz shamlessly overacted to get bogus "low blows" calls that enabled him to get a disputed decision (Thunder), avoid getting counted out for KO (Holyfield) or a bogus DQ (Johnson).

And then, there are the gift decisions (Golota, Holyfield III). The Golota fight is of course the worst example of this, where Ruiz hit the canvas twice, got a point deduction, and was outlanded. And yet he somehow "won" the fight. Outrageous!

When you look deeply into Ruiz's record, you find that he is basically a glorified clubfighter who benefitted from his connections with a powerful promoter to get rankings he didn't deserve, a pass for his illegal tactics that enabled him to "win" fights he could never win with his limited skill, friendly refs to give low blow calls when needed, and gift decisions in fights he didn't win.

This careful ****ysis reveals that - in terms of legitimate skill and ability, and winning fights WITHIN the rules - Ruiz one of the worst HW beltholders of all time.

 

Well at least he knocked out Victor McLaglen, which is more than Jack Johnson could do!

 

Wow, you basically took the words right out of my mouth.

 

A disgrace.He would have fitted in quite nicely in the UFC,what with all their holding and hanging on to each other for dear life.
He was an abomination!:dead

 

Limited fighter with good connections. I am in the minority here but I thought his fight with Golota was difficult to score. It was very ugly and difficult to see the action clearly for me. I do believe with the two knockdowns and point deduction Andrew should of gotten the nod. But watching it round by round I was left scratching my head who to score the round for quite often. Again I haven't seen it in years. Don King was wise to protect Ruiz from Wlad. Wlad would of embarrassed him

 

Also, James Toney slapped him around. But then Toney failed some drug test and Ruiz got the title back again.

The dude had connections and pulled a lot of con jobs. I've always thought he was fascinating in that he really was so generic and non-talented yet held onto that WBA title so long.

 

Please. Practically all fighters are maneuvered. He survived one of the most grotesque KO's the division ever saw, rebuilt his career and was a force for a decade.

You want to talk about conjobs, let's talk Dempsey. You want to talk about easy matchmaking? Rid**** Bowe.

 

Did Puerto Ricans even support the guy? Serious. I don't remember.