John Ruiz

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John “The Quiet Man” Ruiz (born January 4, 1972), a native of Isabela, Puerto Rico who lives in Massachusetts, is the first Hispanic/Latino world heavyweight champion in professional boxing history. He was a two-time World Boxing Association (WBA) world Heavyweight Champion, holding the belt between 2001 and 2005. His professional record is 41-6-1-1 (the last digit is for a no-contest), with 28 knockouts. Frustrated by years of criticism from the boxing press and fans, he retired upon his second loss of the WBA Title on April 30, 2005 (to James “Lights-Out” Toney). Ruiz un-retired in 10 days, after finding out that James Toney had tested positive for anabolic steroids. The official outcome, a unanimous-decision defeat, was changed to a no-contest; the WBA ordered that Ruiz retain the title. Ruiz then filed a lawsuit against Toney, claiming that he had damaged Ruiz's boxing career (due to Toney's use of illegal steriods before their bout).

On December 17, 2005 he lost his title for the third time -- in controversial fashion, as usual -- to a 7-foot tall, 330-pound Russian Nicolay Valuev.

Despite so far being a two-time world champion (most boxers never win one) who has only been knocked out once in over 13 years, Ruiz was widely viewed as an unworthy titleholder. Each world title ascendency has been accredited more to political maneuvering than anything else (his promoter is Don King). Ruiz is also widely disliked, by boxing experts and fans, for his “jab-and-grab” style, which he began after being knocked out in 19 seconds by David Tua on March 15, 1996. This approach features slow body movement; infrequent, single-shot punching; and, limiting opponents’ punches by grabbing their arms when they come within striking distance of him.

First reign as WBA champion

After Lennox Lewis defeated Evander Holyfield for the Undisputed (i.e., WBC + IBF + WBA) World Heavyweight Championship in late 1999, the WBA ordered Lewis to defend the title against Ruiz, its #1-ranked contender. Lewis refused, deeming Ruiz an unworthy challenger. Though undefeated since the Tua match, the level of competition Ruiz had been facing was suspect.

Ruiz and his management team sued, claiming that WBA rules entitled him to a title shot. A judge agreed, but rather than face Ruiz in a bout that was seen as commercially unattractive, Lewis instead fought Michael Grant, considered to be a very worthy contender at the time. After learning of this, the judge decreed that upon entering the ring against Grant on April 29, 2000, Lewis would automatically forfeit the WBA Title.

Ruiz fought former champion Holyfield to fill the vacancy on August 12, 2000, losing by unanimous decision (this result made Holyfield the first to win a world heavyweight title on four separate occasions). Many observers and boxing reporters felt that the underdog Ruiz had done enough to win. Due to this controversial “unanimous” decision, the WBA ordered an immediate rematch 001]], Ruiz won the WBA Championship in a slightly less-close unanimous decision. Ruiz defended the title twice: a draw in a third match against Holyfield, and a 10th-round victory over Canada’s Kirk Johnson (disqualified for repeatedly punching below the waist). On March 1, 2003 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada, Ruiz’s first reign as champion ended — against a light-heavyweight whom he outweighed by over 30 lbs. He lost a lopsided unanimous decision to the legendary Roy Jones, Jr. This undisputed World Light-Heavyweight Champion had grown so bored with dominating his own weight class, he wanted to see if he could also conquer the (then, reportedly weak) heavyweight division.

In defeating Ruiz, Jones joined Michael Spinks and Michael Moorer as the only world light-heavyweight champions to later win a world heavyweight title. Jones was also only the second former world middleweight champion to win a heavyweight title (the first being Bob Fitzsimmons, who beat “Gentleman” Jim Corbett on March 17, 1897).

Second reign as WBA champion

Roy Jones, Jr. was now a world heavyweight champion, but he was still bored. He could not decide whether to: return to light-heavyweight; retire immediately as an “undefeated” world heavyweight champion; or, remain WBA world Heavyweight Champion and try to unify the division's other titles (giving up his light-heavyweight belts in the process). Jones soon failed to meet the WBA-imposed deadline to face Vitali Klitschko, its #1 contender. As per its rules, the WBA meanwhile set up a bout between Klitschko and #2-ranked Hasim Rahman for an interim version of its heavyweight belt. The interim champion would subsequently fight Jones to settle the title's disputed status.

Vitali Klitschko refused contractual negotiations for the Rahman match, opposed to fighting for an illegitimate championship. The WBA then turned to David Tua, its #3 contender. While Tua initially agreed to fight Rahman, he later pulled out of the bout, too. Ruiz, whom Tua had just beaten — but as the #5 contender, was the highest-ranked fighter still interested — agreed to fight Rahman, a former WBC / IBF world heavyweight champion who had won and lost those belts to Lennox Lewis (by KO) in 2001.

On December 13, 2003, Ruiz defeated Rahman by unanimous decision, earning him the first-ever WBA Interim world Heavyweight Title. On February 20, 2004, Roy Jones, Jr. advised the WBA that he would return to the light-heavyweight division, vacating its heavyweight championship. The WBA then removed the “interim” tag from Ruiz’s championship status, declaring his victory over Rahman good enough to warrant being the official WBA world Heavyweight Champion.

On April 17, 2004, Ruiz fought the first defense of his second world title. He retained it with an eleventh-round technical knockout (or, "TKO") of Fres Oquendo at Madison Square Garden. This fight was historic in that it was the first time two Hispanics/Latinos faced each other for a world heavyweight title.

On November 13 of that same year, Ruiz retained the belt with a close unanimous-decision over Polish-American Andrzej Gołota (a.k.a., "Andrew" Golota), although he suffered two knockdowns and a one-point deduction by referee Randy Neumann.

On April 30, 2005, Ruiz lost the title — sort of — to Toney in Madison Square Garden, becoming the first boxer to have both of his heavyweight championship reigns ended by former middleweights (Toney had been a cruiserweight 2 years prior). However, after failing the post-match drug test (for stanozolol, an anabolic steroid), the New York Athletic Commission suspended Toney from boxing in the USA for 90 days, and fined him $10,000 (U.S.). The WBA barred the aging (then 36 years-old) Toney from fighting for its heavyweight title for the next two years. This resulted in Toney's win being changed to a "no contest" -- basically, a nullification. Ruiz came out of retirement before it was found out that Toney would be suspended and he would be reinstated as champion.

On December 17, 2005, Ruiz lost the WBA Championship in Berlin to 7-ft. tall, 324-lb. Russian Nicolay Valuev. The official outcome was a majority decision (scored 114-116, 113-116, and 114-114), but it was also a controversial one. Ruiz was convinced that his jab / combination-punch / grab techniques had given him a clear victory. He demanded that his promoter, Don King, set up an immediate re-match with the now-first-ever Russian world heavyweight champion (not Vitali Klitschko, a Ukrainian). Ruiz's long-time manager, Norman Stone, declared that they would also formally petition the WBA: after all, the 10,000 German spectators booed when the decision was announced. Ruiz's camp claimed that the Germans booed because they too felt that the outcome was unjust. Wilfried Sauerland, the manager who rescued Valuev's career from obscurity 2 years earlier, angrily countered that the fans had booed because Stone's in-ring behavior had aggitated them [1].

Some of Ruiz anti-fans had an interesting reaction to that bout - "Let's just hope Valuev doesn't fail the post-fight steroid check." - so much was Ruiz disliked as a heavyweight champ.

See also

• List of famous Puerto Ricans
• List of heavyweight boxing champions

External links

• http://www.johnquietmanruiz.com/

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