How good was John Ruiz

I liked him, Didn't see much of him, but he seemed slick, hard to deal with cutie

 

He went 1-1-1 against Holyfield. Depending on how you view Holyfield at that point of his career, that's either a highlight or a liability for Ruiz' resume.

Ruiz had two major assets: first, his relationship with Don King, which saw Johnny get continually reshuffled back into title contention after losses. Johnny also enjoyed a conspicuous amount of favorable officiating, including 12 rounds of bad refereeing against Golota followed by a bad decision, a bad stoppage Fres Oquendo and plenty of other less aggregious examples. Thanks to Don King and the WBA Ruiz enjoyed a lengthy series of title reigns punctuated by 'mulligans' when he stumbled, as against Jones, Toney, etc.

Although I have some bitterness against Ruiz because he's perhaps the personification of corruption in boxing during the history of the sport following the decline and fall of the mafia's control, I greatly admire his second strength: his perserverence.

The longer I live the more I realize what an asset it is to remain unbroken by disappointment. I have a friend who is still haunted by being cheated on by his girlfriend when he was 20 years old. I have a former training partner who injured his back when he was 23; he gave up on a promising Golden Gloves career and he's now grossly overweight. I had a friend in high school who went on to drop out of college during his first semester. He's still working on the assembly line he started working on when he flunked out.

With that in mind its amazing in retrospect that Ruiz never wavered after fighting David Tua. I don't think its possible to imagine a more devastating or humiliating loss, yet Ruiz went on to outperform all expectations, while Tua's legacy is that of a disappointment.

Ruiz would have gotten dealt with if he'd ever had to fight Lennox Lewis or a Klitschko brother. I would have favored Chris Byrd over Ruiz by a clear margin. Ruiz was lucky that Kirk Johnson had a McCall esque mental meltdown and that Hasim Rahman was at the nadir of his career when they fought. Nevertheless, his career ended with a measure of redemption. After he ditched Stoney he had a credible rematch performance against Value, upset Jameel McCline, and then went down swinging in a gutsy fight with David Haye.

 

I can't really see him as being any worse than Joseph Parker.

 

hes a solid stepping stone kind of guy.

 

100 years from now they will appreciate his greatness.

Statues will be erected of the sort never to be toppled.

 

Really good post!

 

Ruiz had some ability, chief of which was his ability to spoil boxing matches and form relations with the power brokers in the sport. You're right, Don King made Ruiz. Ruiz, Golota, Rhaman, and Byrd were in a very boring round robin like series. It really didn't matter who won or lost for Don King, the judging was suspect, and sometimes the efforts ( Rhaman's ) was suspect. No one of then was getting stopped. All that matted to King is he had them signed to fight each other.

Yes, Ruiz lost to Jones, Toney ( Later changed by a drug test ) Tua, and Haye. But these guys were not controlled by King were they? So Ruiz and his spoiling tactics were not allowed or expected here. What we got instead was boxing matches where his opponent knew a win or loss takes away his chance. That to me is the real Ruiz, not his fights under Don King's assembly working men, who knew just like a factory worker to show up and get paid without causing a ruckus.

 

An excellent and educated post!

 

A pawn on Don Kings chess board. Nothing more , nothing less.

 

Lennox Lewis was the true linear champion, Ruiz was merely an alphabet belt holder.

 

Without Don King he's a regular on ESPN FNF. A high grade clubfighter who got away with excessive clinching because of Don King.

 

He's basically a heavyweight Harry Greb, except he's really ****.

 

He was a mediocre, dirty fighter who relied on fouling and oscar-worthy playacting. If it wasn't for King's influence he would've lost just about every meaningful fight he was in.

 

How could anyone compare Harry Greb with John Ruiz in terms of their fighting styles? Greb was a highly aggressive fighter with a tremendous work rate while Ruiz had a fighting style which featured him throwing one jab and then immediately falling into a clinch. Some old timers use to call safety-first boxers like Ruiz "agony fighters" because they were agony to watch. My feeling is that Ruiz should have been disqualified every time he tried to use his trademark fighting style.

- Chuck Johnston