Bentt upset Morrison...Levels above anything Wilder has ever done. Stiverne, Martin(could change), Wilder, Ruiz and then Bentt.
Agreed, but there is yet another reason for Ruiz to get the "honor" - the complete illegitimacy of his title reign, which was based entirely on corruption that allowed him the repeatedly violate the rules of boxing to "win" fights he would never have otherwise have won, and to get decisions he should never have gotten (against both Holyfield and Golota, most egregiously).
Martin was beating Glazgov up till the injury. I'm trying to picture Charles Martin vs John Ruiz(The champion version who ROY JONES BEAT) and Martin beats him all day long with his Sotuh-paw stance and his jab. He's taller than Ruiz too and has a bigger reach and is probably stronger than him. Yeah, I think Martin would beat that version of Ruiz. Young Ruiz was ok, when he could move. The champion version was to put it politely, pure dog****.
I don't really rate Glazkov. Ruiz beat some good heavyweights. He was boring as hell and his tactics were in the grey area but he got results. He'd tear Martin a new one.
2003 Ruiz couldn't even knockout a SMW at HW, how do you come to the conclusion he beats up Martin who weighs the same as him and has more knock-out power than Jones at HW, bigger reach, longer arms?!?!? Charles Martin, the one who was beating up Glazkov would have no problems beating Roy Jones(from2003) Hell, Glazkov would give Jones more problems than Ruiz did.
Jones would school Glazkov and Martin on the same night. Ruiz beat HWs far, far better than those scrubs.
He "beat" them will ILLEGAL holding tactics that - if the rules were properly enforced - should have resulted in him being disqualified and losing those fights. Worse, in some cases (Thunder, Johnson and Holyfield), he shamelessly faked low blows to avoid getting counted out from a body shot KO (Holyfield), getting a crucial point deduction to get a bogus decision (Thunder) or a undeserved DQ "win" (Johnson). Ruiz is the worst because his entire record at the world class level is fraudulent. He never beat any decent fighter legitimately, within the rules. Without King, he's a regional beltholder at best.
My opinion in the boxer of today is ten times the boxer of yesterday. Head to head, Martin would probably beat some old champs. But say you adjust for the average of the era, then I would say Martin is probably pretty far up there in terms of the worst champs.
Ruiz does have some controversial decisions on his resume. I'm on about 2003 Ruiz who faced Jones. That guy is the worst HW champion I've ever seen and its not even close for me. If you think Martin is, that's cool. I respect your decision. I've seen enough of both to make my mind up.