https://packaged-media.redd.it/5ft5...00&s=b689ee2199eaf63f234263e7ab89a020abc6b3eb From instagram. A faceoff and "coming soon to a ring near you". I'm in for this one. My guess is that it ends up the headliner of a smaller event? Two former HW champs is certainly enough to headline a small event. Or be on a Riyadh season undercard.
Absolutely. The two most recent American HW champs, both of whom seem well past their best, why not find out who has more left? It's also an interesting matchup no matter what. I'd rate Ruiz as substantially more skilled than Wilder. He's absolutely capable of winning. And he's got a real solid chin, if Wilder's power is starting to go due to a loss of quickness/explosiveness, Wilder may not be able to end it by alnding the right punch. 100% in for this. Side note, Ruiz was actually not looking half bad last time out until he broke his hand mid-fight and then started gassing. If his hand is fully healed and not fragile now, and if he can get back into fighting shape, this could get real interesting.
I'd favour Wilder if we were getting both fighters in their prime version. Both are shot, Wilder more so I think, so I'd probably back Ruiz here to be honest.
Decent fight considering, I'd watch it. The real question though is whether the winner can use this fight to catapult themselves back into the top 10 and title contention? With the right management and marketing I think they definitely could, whether that's deserved or not is another story...
Good fun matchup of 2 guys with power. History wise it actually matters in how we interpret the previous era of HW. The winner gets a meaningful bump to their resume. The winner will not get back into the top 10 or contention. The division is too backlogged. At certain times in history a match like this could yield a title shot we're not in one of those times.
Wilder had power but he just took 7 rounds to TKO a low level journeyman, the kind of opponent he'd have wiped out in 1-2 rounds from his debut on. He's not stopped a serious opponent since 2022 and has lost twice badly since then. I don't think he has any real punching power left, certainly not in his right hand. Ruiz has stopped one opponent of note in his career. His best stoppages after Joshua are Dimitrenko, Hanks, Hamer. He hasn't stopped a litany of better fighters than that, guys like old Liahhovich, old Arreola, ancient Ortiz. He's not scored a stoppage since Joshua back in 2019. If someone gets stopped it will be Wilder, purely because he's so shot. I don't think the fight has significance to the era at all. Usyk is the clear No.1, with Fury, Joshua and Wilder following that as the other HoF inductees.
You don't consider deciding who gets 4th, 5th or 6th in discussions about the late 10s HWs to be signifigant?
Better late than never it would've been a good fight a few years ago I might've favored Wiled back then. It should still be entertaining I now favor Ruiz I think he could stop this current version of Wilder.
