This one's tough for me. Honestly, I think Ruiz would have beaten a lot of opponents Tua couldn't have beaten and vice versa. I'm not putting a ton of stock in their direct battle, as it's really the Tua fight that CAUSED John Ruiz to become John Ruiz. Before then, he actually danced around the ring and boxed, and was more of an offensive fighter than a defensive one. Maybe more fun to watch, but a far inferior fighter. H2H, Tua was maybe slightly better, but it's almost like comparing apples and oranges. In terms of actual resume, I'd still have to rank Tua slightly higher. Wins over Golota, Rahman, Holyfield, Johnson looks better on paper than wins over Oquendo, Moorer, Rahman, Maskaev, but the version of Rahman that Tua beat was significantly better than the version Ruiz beat, Holyfield was already toast, and the Johnson win is very debatable. He also never lost to any Chagaev/Valuev calibre fighters. There's a lot more padding on Tua's record - Ruiz was consistently facing top competition, but I think I give Tua the slight edge.
Ruiz-- based on his record and he's beaten better fighters:deal Tua basically wasted his career, and faded off after Lewis embarrassed him, he's too ol:-(d now to win a belt he wouldn't have a prayer against the KLIT BROS..
Ruiz has been pretty consistent since the ko loss. He isn't a crowd pleaser but has found a way to get the job done most of the time. The man was a consistent top ten heavyweight for a decade.
Yeah, he's gotten the "job" done by CHEATING - holding excessively and faking low blows. And his connections with King allowed him to get away with it.:yep
Ruiz became a much better (harder to defeat, if harder to watch) fighter after that fight - it's like saying RJJ has a better resume than BHop based soley on H2H (not a perfect analogy, but it'll do - the fact of h2h is separate from the quality of the win itself). I'd say the Holy of the Ruiz fight was a more effective boxer than the Ruiz of the Tua fight. You realize the paradox you're creating, too... you're upping Tua's resume by claiming an untested Ruiz as a HIGH QUALITY win. Again, H2h and quality need to be separated. I've already covered this... I'd rank Tua overall as the resumes are very close (I'd edge Ruiz), Tua's a better/more effective fighter + has the H2H. While noteable, Ruiz's ABC belts just aren't worth that much to me; he was never "the champ".
I'm sorry, but no way in hell can you rank ruiz above tua considering the first round ko. a more apt comparison would be khan and prescott, khan might be a champ, but you cant rate him above prescott.