There is footage of him and Holyfield sparring together from 2011. Holyfield was a genuine 6'1" and Ruiz is certainly way shorter and looks comparable to Tyson.
If you look at Ruiz’s feet at some of the public appearances leading up to the fight, he’s wearing real tall shoes / boots and looks about 6’ 1”. But in the ring with boxing shoes, I really think he’s only about 5’ 10”.
It's a 50/50 fight. I say that because Ruiz has power to hurt Ward. Ward however has the better ring IQ and boxing ability. Ward would have the jab going to keep his distance and use his foot work as well. Often working Ruiz soft body with body shots. I lean towards Ward by UD or late TKO.
I'm a huge fan of Andre's, but Ruiz wouldn't be a perfect opponent for him. Yes, he's spoken of fighting HW's in the past, as he wanted to emulate Roy Jones. But he wouldn't come back and fight Ruiz. Ruiz is extremely dangerous. Not only is he more powerful, he's a lot stronger, with no fear and lots of confidence. He stalked Joshua on Saturday, so he'd go at Andre and let his hands go all night. As great as Andre is, he has nothing to deter him from trying to walk him down.
You have to be one of the strangest posters on this forum. Great and entertaining, but very strange. Your line of thinking is bizarre.
Though I will say... if Ward ever wanted a chance at the heavyweight title, this is probably his best chance.
Alvarez-Mayweather has no relevance. Canelo stood off of Floyd because he was young and scared of getting countered by fast shots. Ruiz wouldn't stand off anybody. You've just seen him hunt down Joshua despite getting dropped hard. Ruiz would push forward at every opportunity.
Mayweather's movement gave Alvarez fits. Ward doesn't move as well as Mayweather but Ruiz doesn't move as well as Alvarez. Ruiz would press forward but I think Ward would control the distance and angles better than Joshua.
Ruiz would power forward not caring what he hit. Arms, shoulders, the temple etc, he'd just keep stalking him and walking him down. Ward would have nothing to keep him at bay.
There were many times in the fight where Floyd was stood in the corners, yet Canelo wouldn't engage him. Floyd had a longer reach and a huge speed advantage. If Floyd hadn't have possessed those advantages and Canelo had been more mature, the fight would have played out completely different. I love Andre. I'm a huge fan. Skill for skill, Andre is better than Ruiz. But head to head, Andre has nothing to stop a determined HW in his tracks. You can't pot shot and tie up a guy like that. The man got up from the canvas and stalked Joshua. He'd stalk Andre, and when Andre eventually had to cover up, Ruiz would just keep firing, not caring what he hit.
