Saw a rumor on another thread from a while back that Ruiz’s team brought in an old Joe Hipp to spar and despite his age and condition, Hipp put a pretty bad beat down on Ruiz. No idea if this has ever been verified or not, probably just a rumor, but it got me thinking about this potential matchup. How would a prime Joe Hipp do against John Ruiz? This is assuming the best version of Joe shows up, in shape and ready to fight. I personally see him having some success with his rough and tough inside fighting and sneaky uppercut. The Boss vs The Quietman
Sparring stories have to be taken with a grain of salt especially since many of them are off film and spread only by word of mouth. Also we have to consider, was one guy sparring to keep his job while the other was taking it easy ? Was one fighter being PAID to go easy or to try and test the other ? Was one guy hung over from the night before ? Was one guy fresh while the other guy had been working out for hours ?? anyway…. John Ruiz had a higher degree of success at the world level than hipp did. I also think it would be hard for Hipp to score a knockout against survivalist like Ruiz who hung in there with a lot of guys who could punch. My inclination is Ruiz by decision or late stoppage but that’s just a guess.
As much as I hated watching John Ruiz fight, he almost always found a way to win and I think he does just that over the tough as nails Joe Hipo. Ruiz found a way to beat guys that I though were superior like Rahman, McCline, Johnson, Holyfield, Oquendo and Tucker. Joe Hipp never best a top ten guy.
The unfortunate thing is that Ruiz, for being as ugly of a fighter as he was, still would almost always find a way to merc what should be a simple decision for the other guy, and if he didn't- He'd get a robbery due to Don King's influence. I think the issue with Hipp is that he didn't keep his hands up and would eat punches the whole fight as he was coming forward. Hipp had great resilience to him, but it's not good for any man to just let the opponent get free punches in.
