John Ruiz - Champion or journeyman with a title?

Very low end alphabet champion who ranks lower in many peoples minds because of a weak and boring style.

 

Ruiz has had the best achievements (at heavyweight, so not counting RJJ or JT) of all heavyweights who held any major title after retirement of Lennox Lewis.

 

John Ruiz is/was garbage.

With all the holding and wrestling - I don't see how he won any fights.

He has to be the worst Heavyweight to be called a champion that I can think of.

 

Sucky and boring fighter, weak title opposition, lost title to people he shouldn't have. I'd rank him around 200. And very near the bottom of the list as a champion. I'd even rate Buster Douglas higher than him.

 

Why, what have the mighty Klit's achieved?

 

Ruiz is a classic example of where the "win is a win" and "style counts" arguments collide. If you just look at the people he beat then it seems decent. If you look at how those fights went though, and how Ruiz performed, it sours it.

 

Can i see your top200?

 

I think the best compliment I can offer Ruiz, a guy I really haven't warmed to either inside or outside the ring, is that he's someone that you need to be focused to beat.

If you go in there half-assing it, he'll grapple and clinch and befuddle you to a points loss. If you fight him right you can knock him around, but go in there without a plan and he can getcha.

 

I'm obviously talking about achievements over full career, not only about what happened since summer 2003. Wladimir is only #2 or #3.

 

Ruiz is an average champ but during his tenure as Champ he beat some decent fighters including Rahman, Johnson, Holyfield, Golota, Oqeundo losing to Jones, Valuev, Toney and Chageav.

At the very least he wasnt fighting tomato cans.

 

Very mediocre as even paper champs go, but he deserves respect for making the most of his moderate talents.

 

ruiz wins on heart and determination, most people claim to respect those qualities, but only if the guy is getting his face busted in like a recently retired journeyman who has multiple ring fights of the year.

 

Curious, why did Stoney leave John?