John Ruiz trying to sell a fight

No one cared about him fighting Ruiz. He was a Don King fighter and Ruiz was on no one's list of opponents anyone cared to see.
While that may be what happened, WHY you think it happened is the discussion. Can guarantee 'ducking because he was afraid', was the last reason.

 

Regarding Lewis not fighting Ruiz, before Lewis fought Grant, there was a lot of confusion.

Lewis held the WBC, WBA and IBF titles. He was coming off a unification win against Holyfield.

When you hold all the belts, the orgs tend to take turns with their mandatories. The WBA mandatory was first. The WBC mandatory was supposed to be second. The IBF mandatory third.

Going off memory, first, Ibeabuchi and Grant were supposed to fight in a WBC Heavyweight Eliminator to decide who faced Lewis after Lennox faced his WBA mando. Lewis vs. the winner was going to be a big PPV TVKO/HBO event.

Ike and Grant were the two heavyweights HBO identified as the top new guys. (Tua had been HBO's guy, until he lost to Ike.) The eliminator was set and then Ibeabuchi fell out (due to all his issues) late in the game and Golota was the late sub.

So Grant-Golota was viewed, at that point, as a relatively easy win for Grant. Grant had looked impressive knocking off all the usual suspects. After getting DQed twice against Bowe and getting destroyed by Lennox, HBO had lost all interest in Golota. But they accepted him as an opponent for Grant because they thought Michael would take him out impressively like Lewis did. They had no fear Golota might actually win. IF they had, they wouldn't have accepted that fight. Because Lewis-Golota II would've been a tough sell.

But, in a surprise to all at the time, Golota pretty much beat up Grant the whole fight,. Then Grant started to come on and just as surprisingly, Golota "quit" out of the blue. It was a pretty bad showing by Grant. But the HBO hype train couldn't be slowed at that point.

Lewis-Grant would be the next HBO PPV.

Meanwhile, Lennox's WBA mandatory was up first. When Lewis and Holyfield signed for their rematch, they agreed the winner "would fight the WBA mandatory." That man happened to be Henry Akinwande - who Lewis had already faced and won when Henry was DQed. He'd be another tough sell based on their first meeting.

Henry had Hepatitis. Holyfield was supposed to fight him in a defense before Evander fought Lennox, but the fight was cancelled when Henry tested positive for hepatitis. Despite that, Henry remained in the top spot.

Before Lewis-Grant was signed, Henry was tested again and once again he tested positive for Hepatitis and couldn't fight.

So Lewis felt he was free to fight who he wanted. HBO then stepped in and said they could make Lewis-Grant next, and HBO was throwing money at him for a PPV, so he chose to fight Grant.

Meanwhile, the WBA didn't want to miss out on a mandatory, so they decided to elevate John Ruiz from #2 to #1 and drop Henry. The WBA had introduced a new "points" system to rate fighters, to make their rankings "fairer" and they said Ruiz had earned enough points fighting in WBA regional title fights (NABA and NABF belts) to earn the #1 world ranking.

Then the WBA said Lewis had to fight Ruiz or they would strip him. Lewis said he had agreed to fight Henry, not Ruiz, and Lewis went to court to block the WBA from stripping him.

Since Ruiz, the WBA mandatory was suing, David Tua decided to sue. He was the IBF mandatory. He had been since he beat Rahman. He figured he'd try to get the next shot since he had been sitting there longer than Ruiz and Grant.

Then Lewis met with Ruiz's team and Don King and said, look, if you let the Grant fight go on, I will fight you in England after I fight Grant. Ruiz's team said GREAT! No problem.

Then a judge ruled Tua could cool his heels. He'd get his shot in the order they were supposed to take place.

So Lewis continued training for Grant. About two weeks or 10 days or something like that before the Lewis-Grant fight, the judge who Lewis asked to stop the WBA from stripping him came out with his ruling and the Judge said he AGREED with the WBA.

The Judge said Lewis didn't agree to fight Akinwande (who couldn't fight), the judge said Lewis agreed to fight "the WBA #1 contender" next. And the WBA #1 contender was now John Ruiz.

Once King and Ruiz heard the judge ruled in their favor, ignoring the agreement they made with Lewis, King and Ruiz threatened to sue the WBA if they didn't strip Lewis and name Ruiz the new champ.

Once Holyfield heard this, he threatened to sue the WBA for rating John Ruiz HIGHER than him based on their 'points' system, because Holyfield had been fighting for years defending the WBA heavyweight title and Evander figured he should get more 'points' for defending the world title than Ruiz got for defending the NABF or NABA belts.

So, to avoid multiple lawsuits, the WBA said Lewis had to call off the Grant fight and face Ruiz next ... or they would strip him of his title and pit Holyfield and Ruiz for the vacant belt, which would be promoted by Don King.

With only days to go before the Grant fight, and HBO tapping its foot demanding Lewis make a decision, Lewis went ahead with the Grant fight and vacated his WBA belt.

Then Lennox took out his frustrations on Grant and wiped him out.

Lewis had intended on fight the Grant. Then the WBA mando, Ruiz. Then his IBF mando, Tua, after that, which he did, but the judge Lewis asked to rule on the Ruiz situation actually voted against him. And Ruiz and King and Holyfield made their move.

Lewis vs. Botha should've been Lewis-Ruiz.

Had Lewis faced Ruiz in England in 2000, I think Lennox stops him as quickly as he stopped Botha. And we probably wouldn't have had John Ruiz to kick around for most of that decade. (LOL)

 

All that said, I still kind of wanted to see John Ruiz defend his WBA belt against David Tua. I think the rematch, with Ruiz's frustrating style, would've been fascinating.

When he tried to stay away and box, Ruiz got wiped out in seconds. Ruiz fighting chest to chest with Tua was something I wanted to see.

 

Well now I wish the fight had happened. Coulda saved us a lot of terrible HW title fights. Took a girl I was dating to a sports bar showing Rahman - Ruiz... I'm surprised I wasn't dumped immediately after that fight.

 

Ruiz was on them himself mate, don't feel bad for him

 

Not true. There was a second Holyfield-Ruiz fight because everyone and their brother thought Ruiz got robbed in the first fight.

In the Ruiz-Holyfield rematch, Ruiz dominated Holyfield and floored him hard on top of that. It was a clear-cut win.

People didn't get down on John Ruiz until Ruiz-Holyfield III, which is the first time HBO showed a John Ruiz fight since he lost to Tua.

The HBO guys hated John Ruiz (and particularly King). Merchant hated King because King tried to get Merchant fired in 1990 based on Merchant's comments in interviews after Tyson lost to Douglas. One reason Tyson left HBO was because he wanted Merchant off his fights and HBO wouldn't replace him. And HBO wouldn't budge.

So HBO wanted to televise a big Holyfield win. That was what they were there for. And it was a sloppy fight that ended in a draw. And HBO (well, primarily Larry Merchant) spent the whole night "counting Ruiz clinches."

That's when it began. Nobody thought it was any big deal before that. But HBO (or particularly Larry Merchant) ran him into the ground in that and subsequent fights.

I never cared for Ruiz. I wanted people to beat him. I hated his style.

But what I HATED MORE were the same HBO commentators lavishly heaping praise on every Bernard Hopkins performance late in his career when he fought EXACTLY the same way.

HBO (particularly Larry Merchant) didn't spend all night "counting clinches" when Bernard fought. They (particularly Larry Merchant) didn't complain when Bernard 'FAKED" injuries, which Bernard did in COUNTLES fights. They (particularly Merchant) just talked about what a "wise veteran" he was. It was such bull. He was doing the same things.

Charge in head down throwing a right, hope it lands, immediately grab, maul, make the ref break you, kill the clock, charge in head down throwing a right, immediately grab, maul, force a clinch ... when your opponent gets frustrated and hits while you're holding, claim a foul.

Ruiz and the aging Hopkins were two peas in a pod. I despised watching both because they fought exactly the same way.

So to anyone who thinks Bernard was "this genius" (which I never believed) and thought he was awesome (which I never believed) then don't bash John Ruiz.

Ugly and/or illegal as it was, it was also an effective strategy to cover a lot of deficiencies. Which is why they both employed it.

 

Lol. Kobozev was a good and young CW that was tragically killed by the mob. I watched that fight, Ruiz probably won that one slightly. Either way, no shame in losing to a fire prospect that likely was going to win a world title as some point.

 

Got any proof he was on roids?

 

You’re gonna get flamed for spitting facts.

Ruiz was as tough as they come and I laugh when people felt he was a trashcan.

Sure, ugly to watch but effective at what he did. I think had he focused on being a little more active with throwing shots, he would have had more success.

He dropped Holyfield and nearly stopped him, dropped Johnson and hurt him but it didn’t count, badly hurt Rahman and Oquendo, stunned Golota several times, all with single right hand shots. He had more power than I think he realized in his right hand. Should have used it more.

 

Would you mind putting all that in a PowerPoint? Executive Bullet points only.

Thanks.

 

When Jawny went into pimp mode there was nothing that could be done.

He was like a gator wearing Hulk.

 

Yeah, he was a top level professional boxer. What more do you need.

 

Did you guys notice how great ruizs conditioning was in the toney bout? He literally fought all 12 rounds with so much as a single clinch. I was impressed.

 

lol

 

if I recall correctly and it would be really hard to find because I remember secondsout.com reported it, Ruiz was offered I think $2 million to fight Lennox Lewis before he retired in a unification fight and he said no, or his team said no. I remember thinking, this dude has fought almost everybody and is turning down a fight with the best heavyweight of his era. Very odd.