john ruiz, althoug boring as hell, is the first latino heavyweght champion in history. but did his fellow puerto rican fans support him ala trinidad, cotto etc..it seems in most of his fights, his introduction elicits boos from the crowd and usually the noise of the PR fans are equal to those of the brits..unfortunately none can be heard whenever ruiz fights:think the lack of support even from his own countrymen befuddles me. i mean i know ruiz fights are snoozefests but even calderon gets love from his PR fans..:-(
You KNOW you must be new to the sport if you're referring to Ruiz as a "back in the day" fighter. But to answer your question, no. NOBODY ever supported Ruiz, not even Ricans.
well he's retired now isnt he mr sherlock? after the trouncing he got from mr toe excuse. so f*ck off with ur know it all arroganceatsch thanks for the answer though
third of all, WBA heavyweight CHAMPION means he WAS a champion, albeit a titlist due to the shady nature of his reign alongside don king and the rightful owner of the belt was lennox lewis after he opted to fight grant instead of ruiz thus vacating the WBA belt which ruiz won against ancient holyfield who lewis defeated for the undisputed championship. thanks for the (second of all) answer though mr WBC titlist...atsch
I remember when he fought on the undercard of Lewis - Holyfield I and there was some buzz around him. I think the fights with Holyfield were the turning point in his career as aside from the Jones loss he went on to beat Johnson, Oqendo, Golota and Rahman. Due to his style he was never going to have a massive following given that most people were focused on Vitali as the heir apparent.
I remember that King flew him to Puerto Rico after he beat Holyfield and tried push him, but nobody really gave a ****. He never had any kind of following, ethnic or otherwise, in his prime.
He did have good quality names like Holyfield, Golota, and Rahman, but they were past their best days already and Ruiz still struggled mightily. His fight with Golota a good scrap tho. His 20 seconds of reminiscing with Tuaminator hard to forget tho.
Ruiz cheated in most of those fights, either holding excessively, faking "low blows" or both. The reason Puerto Rican fans, like any real fans of boxing, did like Ruiz is because they could tell a talentless, cheating FRAUD when they saw one!
