By: Sean Crose
Both Andy Ruiz and Luis Ortiz had a lot riding on their in-ring performances Sunday night at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. Former multi-champion Ruiz wanted to once again be considered a serious player in the heavyweight division. Ortiz, on the other hand, STILL wanted to be considered a serious player in the heavyweight division. It was a sink-or-swim moment for each fighter, adding an air of intensity to the entire proceedings.
It looked like Ruiz might have had a slight lead in the first round. His hand speed just seemed to overshadow everything Ortiz had to offer. However, at the end of the round, Ortiz doubled his man’s legs. The second round was, frankly, explosive. Ruiz, quick as lightning and with power behind him, knocked Ortiz down not once, but twice. However, when he finished the round, Ortiz was still on his feet and throwing powerful punches of his own.
The third was slower than the previous round, but Ortiz was able to put his jab to good use. Ortiz wisely decided to keep his distance from him in the fourth, largely preventing Ruiz from lunging at him with the explosive speed he is known for. By the fifth, the fight had gone from a slug fest to a boxing match. Ortiz was throwing his jab fluidly while keeping Ruiz at bay, on most of him. Ruiz was still able to have the moments of him.
There was some booing from the crowd during the sixth round as Ruiz was throwing flurries at Ortiz, but those flurries were few and far between. Things changed in the seventh. Ortiz was dominating what had become a very slow fight, when Ruiz backed him up with a body shot. A few seconds later, Ruiz successfully entered Ortiz and put him back on the canvas. Needless to say, Ortiz got to his feet and the bell rang to end the round moments later.
To his credit, Ortiz was then largely able to jab his way successfully into the eighth. Ruiz proceeded to hit the body hard in the ninth. Still, Ortiz could have used his jab effectively enough to take the round. Ruiz was mostly inactive in the 10th. Was he running out of gas? If it was, no one would know watching the 11th round, as Ruiz rocked Ortiz again, tripping the big man. Ortiz survived the round, but simply took too much damage to win the fight, barring one highly unlikely event. Ortiz unloaded his arsenal in the final round, while Ruiz was able to land himself several times.
Suffice it to say that the judges awarded Ruiz with a victory for UD.
“Do you think I’m done?” Ortiz asked rhetorically when she was asked afterward if she was going to hang up the gloves. “What do people want?” The crowd cheered loudly, answering the question for him. “He’s a warrior, he hits hard and I think I did a beautiful job,” Ruiz said. “I just want to thank God very much.” Later, Ruiz was questioned about his future. “Let’s do it!” he said when asked if he would fight Deontay Wilder. “Let’s move on!”
“We can move on,” Wilder said, after entering the ring and praising his friend Ortiz.
