Andy Ruiz, Jr vs Max Baer Sr

The idea that Ruiz is better athlete than Baer is both ridiculous and funny. He's quick hands for his size and is well trained, that's it. Baer was outstanding athlete who just didn't care about proper training.

Also "tiny bonned" fighters don't look at 230 lbs like Baer did at the end of his career.

Baer could make Ruiz look like Galento and then people would talk that Ruiz is just a fat barroom brawler. Maxie beat better boxers than Ruiz in his career.

 

My opinion is that if Braddock could beat Baer, Ruiz definitely can.

Peak for Peak, I say a bout that starts exciting, then Baer freezes up like he did as he's repeatedly tagged. Late stoppage.

 

Yeah I didn't get that either. Baer wasn't a speciman but an obese chubster is.

 

Don't even see that tbh. I see it more like Liston vs Williams in that Ruiz has a good first round but is very quickly figured out and it all goes downhill from there.

 

He freezed up only once in his career against the best puncher in HW history. He didn't freeze up against Nova (terrific puncher) who tagged him many times. He didn't against Schmeling (who had one of the best right hands ever), he didn't against Galento and many others.

 

If it's Baer from the Schmeling fight Vs Ruiz from the Joshua fight, I think Baer wins. With the versions more likely to turn up I make it pretty 50:50, I'm wavering on who I'd give the edge to.

I don't like Joshua, but I think there's a good chance his stock will rise, which will makethat win more impressive. It's hard to say just how good Ruiz is, was he just wrong for Joshua or can he become a force in the division, I think we need to wait and see.

 

There is a bit more to it.

I think his losses within a year after killing an opponent can be overlooked, that is his losses to Schaaf, Loughran, Risko, and Uzcudun.

I do agree though that he basically has one uncharacteristically good win over Schmeling. Even against Primo he dropped round from clowning and was showing the flaws that would lose him the title. He had some other decent wins over contenders, but his legacy is almost entirely from two fights, one of which was a vastly better performance.

With Ruiz it's harder because we don't know. He could beat Joshua again, then beat the winner of Wilder-Fury, or he could lose emphatically to Joshua, lose to a couple contenders and retire.

 

He has a more modern style, but I think Ruiz is pretty similar to Schmeling in a lot of ways.

Ruiz is slightly taller, but with a slightly shorter reach, good skills and counters, not the quickest feet, solid power, but not a devastating puncher, both pretty tough, but not impenetrable chins.

Baer has a massive reach (the same as Wlad), is a bigger puncher and has a better chin, and they'll invariably be up close and trading.

I have a hard time seeing Ruiz beat the force of nature version of Baer that turned up against Schmeling.

Against Louis, Baer was very poor and basically just resigned to taking a beating, didn't he go in with an injury?

 

Baer was a pretty physical fighter though and Ruiz weighed like 80 pounds more than Schmeling.

 

Horrible logic there.

Ruiz should not be picked over Baer because he beat Joshua, any more than Braddock should be picked over Joshua because he beat Baer.

These fights are upsets for a reason.

 

It's simple. Baer was atrocious technically. I love old school boxers, but never understood the hype for Baer. He was sloppy and inconsistent, with poor defense and ring IQ, and questionable heart.

If the fight went to closer ranges, which it definitely would with Ruiz's skill, then Baer has a horrible time.

And Ruiz's win over Joshua wasn't that much of an upset, and wasn't a fluke. It wasn't what Joshua didn't do, it's what Ruiz did, which is why he'll beat Joshua again.

 

Do you think he has as much lean weight as Baer?

I think Baer would still be the stronger, though not by as much. Baer could push him around like he did with Schmeling, but I don't think it'd make that much of a difference in the end.

 

Baer was beating men ranked in the top ten over a period of seven or eight years.

That is longer than Joshua has been fighting as a professional.

As for Ruiz, he isn't anywhere close to demonstrating this sort of period of form.

 

I agree.

Ruiz however is just the man who shot Jesse James at the moment.

We don't know if it was a freak result, or the beginning of something else yet.

Only fair to point out that Joshua never actually held the lineal title, and Baer did.

I am aware that Baer was inconsistent, and I am aware that he was seen as something of a disappointment.

None of that detracts from what he achieved.

He was a lineal champion, and he was beating men currently ranked in the top ten over a period of eight years.

He might not have been as good as he could or should have been, but he still accomplished a hell of a lot!

 

Virtually everybody that Baer knocked senseless was better than him from a technical standpoint.

I would say that it was a combination of both.

Bold prediction by the way!