How good was John "The Quiet Man" Ruiz?

Virtually unwatchable boxing style. Some of his fights were sleep inducing.

Norman stone was a psycho.

 

Me,and no one will ever find out,hahahahaha.

Oh,wait a minute!!atsch

 

A true original !

He bridged the stylistic gap between Ali and Louis.

Such accomplishment !

Where to begin...

His schooling of lennox's daddy...

His clear dominance in the holyfield trilogy...


His enriching, symbiotic partnership with stoney...



Words fail here.

Shakespeare never saw Ruiz box, but he summed him up best.

"He was a man. Take him for all in all.
I shall not look upon his like again."

 

Blasted out in 17 seconds by Tua...

 

Legend.

 

Him being champ is more of a testament to how bad the HW division has become, rather than him demonstrating considerable talents...

 

Maybe, but I never seen a fighter improve so much after being savagely knocked out. I think his trainers did a real good job into rebuilding his career later on. Special mention to Norman Stoney Stone.

 

Toney schooled him.
But he was a legitimate contender.

 

Not bad as a fighter pretty decent had a good win over Danny Williams .not much fun to watch.

 

Love him or not, there is no such thing as being as lucky as Ruiz would have had to have been to beat those names. He was a mediocre champ who made the most out of what he was working with.

 

How good was Ruiz? Not very good at all - in fact, he was one of the worst beltholders of all time and never an actual "champion." Ruiz was a glorified clubfighter who was the poster boy for boxing corruption of all sorts. A talentless mediocrity whose connections to powerful promoters got him title shots he didn't deserve and wins his lack of skills didn't merit.

His entire career is basically a fraud. In virtually every fight against decent competition, Ruiz blatantly violated the rules against excessive holding, and without the influence of Don King, he would have been appropriately disqualified in every fight he "won" against decent competition.

Not only this, he shamelessly faked "low blows" in several fights (Thunder, Holyfield II) to get crucial point deductions - or in the case of Kirk Johnson, a bogus DQ "win."

Then there are the several highly debatable decisions he received, such as the bogus draw he should have lost against Holyfield, and most egregiously against Golota, where he got the decision in a fight where he hit the canvas twice and actually landed LESS punches than the guy he supposedly "beat!!!!"

Contrary to what the OP argues, Ruiz doesn't have any "legit wins" over decent competition - because without King's influence, he would have never been rated in the first place, and he certainly wouldn't have been able to violate the basic rules of boxing with impunity, as he did in every fight he ever had against good fighters.

Ruiz is a disgrace to the sport of boxing, a cheater and a fraud whose bogus career was a classic example of how King's corruption ruined the sport when he was a major influence.

 

I agree with you there, he did show great personal fortitude to improve on his game

 

I don't know about holding "legit" wins over some of the named fighters. I remember thinking McCline, which was scored as a route, was really a pick em fight, and several others that went his way could have easily been scored the other way. I thought Johnson was cheated of a win from a biased judge who gave him a bogus deduction and then dq over dubious low blows. I also have no problem with any of his losses. He fights a really negative style that makes scoring difficult against toppish opponents.

All that said, he was one of the 8 or 9 best hw's of the 2000's.