Andy Ruiz, Jr vs Max Baer Sr

You are right that technicalities don't matter with a KO. I usually preach function over form.

I just think that Baer's deficiencies are too glaring for me to pick against Ruiz. For the record, I think Baer would give a hard fight, but eventually be worn down.

And about the Joshua prediction, I stick by it! If I'm wrong, you can come back here and laugh at me!

 

good post, if Ruiz loses to Joshua and all of the rest of his fights, he is still much better than the best Max Baer. Baer would be a losing 4 round fighter today if he was a boxer at all. He had no talent for boxing and was lucky that most of his opposition was about the same. Ruiz beat people like Elijah McCall and Joe Hanks on his way up that were bigger, stronger, and better boxers than Baer. They would beat Baer easily too and they would dominate the era.

Max Baer was a stiff, slow, uncoordinated, unskilled fighter then and his size made him competitive, plus the competition was pathetic. He would be a good first fight for Ruiz so that Ruiz could begin his career with a first round knockout. Ruiz is an impressive fighter who has been involved in the sport since he was 6 years old. Watching him in training and watching Baer, it's hard to believe they are doing the same sport. It's an insult to Ruiz to be compared with that guy.

 

Trouble is if Braddock beat him Schmeling should have also.

There was a lot more too the Braddock fight.

He was making more money as an actor, and may have been carrying an injury. Plus Braddock was a tough spoiler, determined to win, and it added up to a big upset. Ruiz is much closer to Schmeling than Braddock stylewise IMO, and that puts him at a disadvantage.

I'd certainly pick Ruiz over Baer from the Braddock fight, but Baer from the Schmeling fight would be different. More likely it'd be somewhere between, which I think makes it pretty 50:50.

 

I agree, although I think Baer would be better than a 4 rounder.

 

Fair enough. I never thought the acting excuse was that solid though. It seems Baer is given liberties other, better fighters are not given after losing.

Not gonna debate it much, tho. We had a whole thread on it a while ago.

 

I don't think the acting acuse should elavate his ranking, if he indeed had an injured right, it's a bit more forgivable IMO.

I don't rank Baer very high either, inconsistent as hell, and he had a big stylistic advantage in his one truely big win (though I think it was easilly his best performance too), and some okay wins over Primo and Galento. I wouldn't put him top 20.

But his inconsistency plays both ways, even without knowing the other reasons, and just watching him against Schmeling, he was clearly capable of better than he did against Braddock, it shouldn't be overlooked, but you shouldn't go the other way and rate him entirely off his worst performance.

 

The thing is, not only is Ruiz technically better than Baer (much, much better at that)--he also has faster hands, very good power, and the size and strength to hold his ground.

 

None of these things are necessarily going to translate into him winning.

 

What worries me, is that he actually said "I have to get my motivation back."

That does not bode well!

 

Some interesting parallels with Joshua there.

Joshua was absolutely coining it out of advertising, and perhaps that hurt his motivation?

Perhaps the problem for both Baer and Joshua (not excusing anything), is that boxing was not longer their main source of income!

 

I absolutely think Ruiz would be stronger. He ate punches from Joshua and hasn’t taken a step backwards in his career.

Writing a long post comparing Schmeling and Ruiz without mentioning that Schmeling was190 soaking wet and that Ruiz is a 265 pound tank shows large bias.

 

"265Ib tank"

Yet even coming in 20Ibs lighter he was still downright fat.

 

No he really isn't!

If that happens as you describe, then Ruiz is just a relative non entity, who scored the most shocking upset of all time!

Baer is still the second or third best fighter of his era!