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

Irrelevant.

Of course, if Lionel Butler had beaten Lewis, he would have been a worthy WBC title challenger. He was undefeated for four years, with 14 KOs (plus a KO in a ND) in a 15-fight winning streak featuring 2 former belt holders. That's better than Ruiz's record after the Tua fight (until he lost to Holyfield) and Butler had never been KO'd within a single minute by a single punch. So, basically, you're wrong.

 

Yep, and if Ruiz beat Damon Reed and Don Steele, he could have beaten opponents with a record of 59-0...

 

Aren't we talking about BEFORE Ruiz beat Holyfield?

Also, Ruiz was unimpressive and hardly dominant against Holyfield. Ruiz-Lewis was considered a joke fight in 2002.

 

You mean you were not impressed by all those close Controversial Decisions that were full of nothing but hugging, grabbing, clinching, wrestling, grabbing, faking low blows etc.?

We all saw how shitty Ruiz was when he was CORRECTLY forced to fight by the rules in the Jones fight. He was relegated to standing in the middle of the ring being a target for Glass Jaw Roy.

If Ruiz had been forced to follow the rules of Boxing he would have NEVER made it anywhere after the Tua loss which is when he adopted the "Jab and Grab" Style.

 

So Riddick Bowe is a bum as well then?

 

No, but he was (and is) a mental case.

 

Lewis was pretty unimpressive himself.

 

No.

 

you need to provide real evidence not something written by some biased Lewis fan on a boxing site maybe you wrote those links yourself... i suggest you try reading the HBO agreement and their offer as it was them who was running the mini-tornement

 

exactly what you do with all links... takes two to tango sunshine