Who ranks higher all-time: John Ruiz or Vitali Klitschko?

Who will go down as the superior heavyweight?

 

As time passes, Ruiz.

The resume he has is quite formidable and Vitali's is weak as hell, besides his KO%.

 

Beside his triology with past his prime Holyflied, Ruiz has done nothin that would have him ranked higher than Klitschko...

 

LOL, and what did Klitschko do to rank him higher than Ruiz?

NOTHING. When the best thing on your resume is a loss, you have issues weighing in historically.

 

Ruiz is the best Heavyweight of this era.

 

Both will rate about equal, sadly. A small core of boxing historians will know that Vitali was the much more talented fighter, but the average fan will look at boxrec and be unimpressed.

 

I'd say:

1) Wlad
2) Byrd
3) Vitali
4) Ruiz

 

Maybe the true historians go a little further than typing "Vitali Klitschko Boxrec" into Google :good

As weak as Vitali's resume is, you can't ignore how impressive the feats he achieed in his career were.


Was beating one very good and one ATG heavyweight on all 6 cards in those two fights, when injuries forced him to lose.

Lost less than 10 rounds in his entire pro career.

Has the highest knockout ratio pf heavyweight champion in history. Very few non-champion heavyweights, such as Mac Foster, have higher knockout ratios.

Was never knocked down legitimately.

 

All impressive, but who was his best win again?

 

That's the crowning irony. Despite a roller-coaster career marked with controversy, injuries, and last-minute fights, Vitali is one of the most statistically consistent fighters in history against B-grade opposition. Maybe THE most consistent.

 

Sucks to be him then. At least Ruiz fought an all time great, historically highly rated heavyweight and bested him in a three part series.

If you limited Ruiz's career to the opponents that Vitali fought, they would most likely end up with the same record.

 

as much as I hate to say it, it's Ruiz. His resume is clearly superior

 

It is very painful to say, but its the truth. Even if you favor Vitali head to head, combining accomplishments and head to head, I'd still say that Ruiz squeaks by him.

 

A shot one, though. Ruiz's victory over Holyfield is hardly a landmark in the annals of boxing.

I doubt it. Neither guy has great victories, but Ruiz couldn't put up the kind of performances that Vitali could...and lost to some that Vitali would not have, like Jones.

 

H2H, Vitali. Based on resume, however, I don't think you can make a reasonable argument that Vitali comes out ahead. Ruiz just fought (and beat) much tougher competition, and it's not like the guys who beat Ruiz were any worse (aside from one) than the guys who beat Vitali.