Will the David Haye vs. John Ruiz bout be Ruiz’s last chance?
John Ruiz’s April 3rd challenge to WBA Heavyweight Champion David Haye could very well be his last fight as a professional boxer. 38 years old and having lost 3 out of 4 of his most recent fights against “name” opponents, a loss to Haye would knock Ruiz out of contention for a world title belt. At his age, he is unlikely to rebound and if he continued to campaign it would be as a gatekeeper. Indeed, Ruiz has suggested that he may retire if he loses to Haye. Given that the younger, faster, hard-hitting Briton has all the tools necessary to beat Ruiz, this fight is probably the end of the road for the veteran heavyweight.
It has been a long road for the over-achieving Puerto Rican. The first time I saw John Ruiz fight was when David Tua crushed him like a Styrofoam cup in 1996. Since then, he has displayed an admirable tenacity and an utterly boring style that has carried him to the top of the heavyweight division. The truth is that John Ruiz’s name has been inseparable from the WBA’s black strap for 10 years.
He went 1-1-1 with Evander Holyfield over that belt in one of the dullest trilogies on record. He beat the under-motivated Canadian Kirk Johnson, the Baltimore knucklehead Hasim Rahman, the foul Pole Andrew Golota, and slick fringe contender Fres Oquendo. Sure he lost to blown-up middleweights like Roy Jones and James Toney. Yeah, he couldn’t beat Nikolai Vaulev or Ruslan Chagaev. But who would have thought that this guy, excepting the Klitschkos themselves, would be the last man standing from his generation of heavyweights.
If there is one thing that the losses to Jones, Toney and Chagaev tell us, it is that John Ruiz does not deal well with fighters who are faster than he is. David Haye might not have had the speed of Jones or the toolbox of Toney, but he is faster than the plodding Ruiz and hits a lot harder than any of those three.
Unless Haye blows off Ruiz and his own training camp, a victory over “the Quietman” is certain. With nowhere to go, one of the pivotal figures of the heavyweight division for the last decade will hopefully retire. Although he was boring to watch, it’s hard to imagine the division without its perisistent, never-say-die, lovable-if-boring sad sack. Requiem for a heavyweight indeed.
