Is John Ruiz the best ...US HW fighter of the last decade?

Who else is there? Chris Byrd? Rahman? It's a short list.

 

****ing unbelievable...Ruiz is the best hahaha

 

:rofl......atsch.......:?

 

Lewis and the Klits ducked him.

They saw him destroy a prime ATG in Holyfeld and wanted no part of him.

 

Yep.

 

You GOTTA be kidding. Chris Byrd is clearly better. **** almost any American HW you could name has more boxing ability. Without King, Ruiz would never have gotten anywhere with his limited skills - which is exactly WHY he had to cheat. And King's influence allowed him to get away with it!

Ruiz is a fraud and a joke. Cheats in just about every fight. Excessive holding is against the rules!! And faking low blows is disgraceful.

 

Ya, Ya, we know. The question is if he is the best right now in the US. At least he will fight and not do a King Pin. By the way, King is no longer with Ruiz. I don't think we are going to see an exciting American HW for a long time. It is sad that you have CW challenging instead of good HW's coming out to stake a claim.

 

Byrd was better in my opinion. Ruiz resume isn't all that bad though.

 

On resumé and achievement and longetivity he's the best. Byrd was finished 4 years ago at HW. Both are pretty similar in terms of achievement - two titles each - and similar in terms of resumé if you take away Byrd's 'win' over Vitali. They have both beaten largely the same guys - Holyfield, Oquendo, McCline. Both faced Golota - Byrd drawing and Ruiz winning. - and Byrd has beaten Tua and Williamson while Ruiz has win's over Kirk Johnson and Rahman. But Ruiz has gone close on a number of other occasions, namely Valuev I, and is still challenging for titles competitively now.

 

Chris Byrd could be included in this conversation. In 2000, he was a TKO winner over future World Heavyweight Champion, Vitali Klitschko, when Klitschko was unable to continue due to a torn rotator cuff. He also had wins over an older Evander Holyfield, Fres Oquendo, David Tua and Jameel McCline. By the middle of the decade, he was going down hill and in 2006, he was KO'd by future World Heavyweight Champion, Wladimir Klitschko.

Hasim Rahman only really had one great accomplishment in knocking out World Heavyweight Champion, Lennox Lewis in 2001. Rahman was knocked out in his first title defense by Lewis in their rematch. Rahman is the only U.S. heavyweight to win the real World Heavyweight Championship in the decade. Though a great accomplishment, it isn't enough, in my view, to be the best of the decade.

Maybe James Toney could have a claim, though for a much shorter period of time. It's sad, but maybe true. John Ruiz may very well be the best U.S. heavyweight fighter of the last decade. He has a style that is very difficult for a lot of heavyweights to beat. Few have looked good against him. Ruiz has trouble with the smaller, fast heavyweights like Jones and Toney. Of course Toney was exposed as a banned substance user after the fight, but Jones simply had his way with "The Quiet Man". That was Jones' only fight at heavyweight, so to me, he isn't eligible.

Hopefully the next decade will have some U.S. heavyweights that show discipline as well as talent. Today's heavyweights, especially the U.S. heavyweights, come in weighing 20 to 40 pounds more than they should. It's not looking good as of now, but the new decade hasn't even begun.
I guess we have to just face it, John Ruiz may be the best we have. I would pick Chris Arreola to steam roll him and maybe even Kevin Johnson to outbox him, but over the last decade, John Ruiz was likely the best the U.S. had to offer.

 

I just wish John Ruiz would disappear.

Sadly he probably is the best US (true) heavyweight of the last decade.

 

Uhm where is the "No" option. Next time, skip the whole poll thing and just say your opinion. This faking it with a poll to make it sound you are not being bias is rather obvious and annoying.