Washed up Holyfiend got the better of him, Golota was a gift decision, Rahman was an extremely inconsistent fighter, Johnson he faked low blows for a DQ win.
Okay, you're speaking partial truths, and twisting them as part of some agenda. Lewis refused to defend against Ruiz, but not because he was afraid of him like you seem to think. The Grant fight was largely seen as the more dangerous and marketable fight - Grant was an undefeated 6'7 athletic HW with power, and much better wins than Ruiz.
Good to see boxing fans see through this FRAUD. Any time this cheater comes up, it should noted that Ruiz only "won" fights against decent fighters by breaking the RULES against excessive holding. And, in several fights by blatantly overacting to draw bogus low blow calls to get crucial point deductions (Thunder, Holyfield II) or a bogus DQ (Johnson). His entire career against world class opposition is utterly fraudulent. Without Don King, he's a regional beltholder, at best. People should be as upset - if not moreso - at these forms of cheating as they seem to get over PED use. And Ruiz is the worst ever practitioner of this, a glorified clubfighter who - if it weren't for shenanigans inside the ring and corruption outside of it - would be best remembered for getting starched by David Tua in 19 seconds.
He was a contender who deserved a shot. It would have been interesting to see how Lewis would handle him.
A lot easier than Jones did considering Lewis would have destroyed Roy at heavyweight and beat Tua with ease also.
Pretty much my take. His terribly unaesthetic style worked for him. Only a few HW's had an easy time with him.
I would add that in retrospect, Ruiz would have been a better win, but 100% truth that at the time it looked as if Lewis was running towards the bigger challenge and the more dangerous opponent. Well spoken.
What he did was against the RULES of boxing, and frankly good sportsmanship. He is every bit as much a cheater - worse, actually - then those who take PEDs. From the excessive holding, to the gift decisions, to the blatant and repeated faking of "low blows" - everything this glorified clubfighter did was a disgrace to this fine sport. Without Don King, he wouldn't have a single "victory" over any decent fighter.
Agreed 100%, and who knows what the trajectory of Ruizs career would have looked like had he been given the Lewis fight? He very likely would have suffered a similarly one sided beatdown. Grant wasn't the same after that, even if he was a bit of a hypejob.
If a world champion is not an "elite fighter", then who is? A better than average champion, a legendary champion? I think the definition of "elite" on this forum is awry. An elite athlete is anyone who competes for the highest accolades in their sport. You'd have to be overly pedantic to dismiss a world champion as such.
Dude, this is too revisionist. Grant was undefeated at the time. As for the glass jaw, that wasn't the case until he got KO's by Lewis and then McCLine. Grant was seen as a threat at the time. Hell, Lennox was the one who had been TKOd before they fought.
