What exactly did Ruiz do to earn a fight with Lewis?

Yeah like anyone sticks to their word in boxing. Its whats makes the most dollars makes the most sense, and Newman wanted nothing to do with Suliaman and the WBC after they went the route of the WBA spot.

 

Then how come HBO signed Bowe to a seven fight deal worth an estimated 100 million after he trashed that WBC belt? They continued to air his fights and looked to make the fight down the line. HBO was just as much against working with Don King who had the WBC attached to his hip at this time than Bowe and Newman were. King had a deal with Showtime, he looked to take all his fights there. It had more to do with that than anything else.
Holyfield did the same thing. He agreed to fight Ruddock and then backed out too.

 

They could have told Bowe he had to fight Lewis next too. Bowe would not have trashed his belt if that was the case. Instead they allowed him to face Dokes and Ferguson because they knew the Lewis fight could grow into the superfight it would have become had both guys kept winning.

 

Alphabet obsession strikes again. Claiming that ruiz was a number 1 contender to lewis is completely laughable.

Saying he ducked wlad I might understand because he was the number 1 contender for a while.

Ruiz never ever became number 1, he reached the top 5 after some decent victories over holyfield and rahman but never number 1.

 

With hindsight there was never an ideal time for lewis and bowe to meet. Lewis didn't really hit his stride until 97 which is when his march to the top really gathered momentum. By then bowe wasn't really relevant. He was out of shape and being pummelled by golota.

Had lewis not lost to mccall maybe he'd have created some momentum sooner but that was never the case.

 

your correct HBO staged the mini-tournement in 1992/3 so it was HBO who put up the money for the fights. They put up $18 million for the final with $15 million going to Bowe the undisputed Heavyweight champion of the World and $3 million going to Lewis the challenger. yet Lewis turned it down dragging his feet past the WBC deadline knowing that organisation would strip Bowe of their belt and award it to Lewis.. Bowe knew exactly what Lewis was doing so said to the WBC up you`have your belt..and binned their belt into the garbage can.. Lewis knew that if he got Bowe stripped of the belt then he would be awarded that belt and his first defence against Tony Tucker the junkie was bringing him $9 million which is 3 times more than what he would get for fighting Bowe with virtually no risk as Tucker was completely `Shot whereas Bowe was At the Top of his Game`.... it's simple really. do i blame Lewis, NO its called business sense. yet i blame Lewis for claiming Bowe was afraid of him which simply is not true.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0eins2DhSo"]YouTube - So Much to Talk About: Riddick Bowe (June 2009)-Pt. 4 of 5[/ame]

 

What did Ruiz do to do to become mandatory?

HE didn't fight an eliminator

Blasted out in a round 4 years prior to the only credible contender he'd ever faced

He arguably lost to Jimmy Thunder

His best win was a Shot Tucker who'd just been blown out in 2 by Herbie Hide

 

Ruiz went 1-1-1 in a trilogy with Shot Holyfield!

 

That was actually after WBA Mandated him though, but to follow through that logic, when did he actually earn the right to be the number 1 contender above Wlad, Vitali, Tyson, Grant?

2000 - mandated as WBA mandatatory with no wins over any contenders at all
2000 - loses to Holyfield - obviously not here
2001 - wins controversally against Holyfield, even if you think 1 win over 1 contender makes him no1 he signs a rubber match so no Lewis fight even
2001 - draws with Holyfield - so now in the scheme of things isn't even above Holyfield
2002 - gets outboxed by Kirk Johnson and fakes low blows to win a controversal DQ - no not really and Kirk Johnson becomes every bit as credible opponent as Ruiz
2003 - loses a shutout to Jones Jr

Lewis retires

At no time was he ever considered the top challenger in the division. No one ever called for Lewis to face Ruiz, Ruiz's promoter paid Lewis not to fight Ruiz, Ruiz never was in a position to be a relevant challenge. The only criticism is from Lefthook31 who uses Lewis not facing Byrd/Ruiz as his defense for Bowe not facing Lewis. And obviously Quarry who's a blatant troll

 

in 2000, the first ruiz vs evander fight was controversial. ruiz probably deserved the win in that fight. in the second fight, ruiz clearly won imo knocking down evander in the process. in the third fight, i thought evander clearly won. i believe i had it 8-4.