For a fighter who rarely entertained, he sure gave his all against Haye and was part of one of the better HW fights of recent times despite the one sided nature. A good way to leave the sport.
:good I didn't find Ruiz THAT boring. You gotta understand that a lot of the guys that Ruiz was fighting were more than happy to hold as well.
Hardly. Ruiz was the most blatant violator of the rules against excessive holding in modern times. He had no boxing ability to speak of, which is why he had to cheat to "win" fights. And if you really think Ruiz was even close to "great" that says all anyone needs to know about your judgement. As I said, he was one of the worse HW beltholders ever, and certainly the most fraudulent.
this should tell you all you need to know about ruiz...a true ATG fighter like Toney doesn't respect him...he was a bum..a lucky bum at that that without don king wouldn't have been ****..but he did go out on his shield when haye beat the crap out of him in his last fight
tbh if it was that easy to cheat to the top with absolute zero talent then we'd all be world champions. he mustve done something right and had some talent.
I was rooting for Evander and didn't think Ruiz could hurt him....man, I thought for sure Evander was going to get stopped after that right hand. He was on rubber legs the rest of the fight and barely saw the last bell. Holyfield was healthy for this fight too, fresh off the Lewis fights and would go on to beat up Rahman before the shoulder injury really ended his career at the top. Something people forget. Ruiz was suppose to be an easy job for Evander to set up a third Holyfield/Lewis fight. Lewis beats Grant for HBO dollars, while Evander take mandatory Ruiz out of the picture. Instead the first fight ended up being controversial and the second Ruiz won.
Not everyone has the connections with Don King that allowed Ruiz to cheat with impunity. Without King, Ruiz is regional titlist at best, known only for getting laid out cold by Tua in 19 seconds.