Andy Ruiz vs prime Chris Byrd.

Byrd UD.

 

Parker only barely beat Ruiz and only did becuae he used quick feet to move around the ring.
If he stood and traded in the pocket he would have lost.
Byrd stands in pocket and shimmys around his upper body which worked against slow plodders but would not work against Ruiz.

Byrd can't deal with speed and power. He has no legs. None.

 

Byrd has no legs to avoid Andy. He gets battered

 

And it was a comebacking Golota with a bum shoulder at that.

 

Ruiz has feet stuck in cement and is a sharp but not hard puncher, he is also easily tagged because he uses his chin as his main form of defense.
Byrd has a excellent chin, great upper body movement and pretty fast hands or combos with not a lot of sauce behind it.
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Byrd is not going to spit his mouth piece out and quit, thats for sure.

I envision a rather dull fight with Ruiz never gets going while eating pitty patty shots up and down stairs allowing Byrd the win.

Byrd also has the way better resume at Heavy at this point and fought, win or loose way better fighters than Ruiz excluding the Bodybuilder.

 

Ruiz's handspeed isn't much quicker than Tua's tbh I've watch both of them extensively. Not denying Ruiz's speed because he IS quicker, just not by much. People overrate Tua in general but underrate his handspeed

 

Almost as funny as people hyping Bowe based on the Holyfield triology given he did so little else of note

 

He throws shorter punches too (Ruiz), which magnifies his handspeed.

 

You've got a fair stake in this because not long before Joshua - Ruiz you told us that heavyweights get better as time going on and it's logical that Joshua was probably the best ever. You also used to label Joshua - Bowe a "mismatch" and that Joshua's chin was more proven than bowe's etc etc. Noe of that aged very well.

Given what Holyfield did before, after and in between the Bowe trilogy it's little wonder Bowe gets a lot of mileage out of these wins. They are some of the better wins in heavyweight history.

How many top ten contenders has Ruiz ever beaten? He has a win over Joshua who would have been #2 or #3 in the division with hindsight. He was beaten soundly in the rematch unlike Bowe who showed he didn't get lucky.

I would actually agree Bowe's record outside of Evander is quite shallow but he had a couple of wins over contenders and one cannot take the Holyfield wins away from him for the sake of convenience. I thought you would have liked Bowe because you are so fixated on height and weight.

I'm actually willing to sit on Ruiz and see how he pans out now he's making his comeback and seems to be in good stead. If he goes really well he might elevate Joshua's loss to him among other things. That's the problem with making predictions and assessments too early in various careers.

 

I have Chris Byrd by decision as do many others because quite simply, it’s difficult to imagine any other result. But it would probably be an unpopular fight. John Ruiz had a way of making people look unimpressive and taking quality action away from a bout.