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Former unified world heavyweight champion Andy “The Destroyer” Ruiz Jr. scored three knockdowns en route to a unanimous decision win over top contender Luis “King Kong” Ortiz in their WBC Heavyweight Title Eliminator headlined by a FOX Sports PBC Pay-Per-View Sunday night from the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
The first boxer of Mexican descent to become world heavyweight champion, Ruiz (35-2, 22 KOs) brought his hometown crowd to their feet early as he delivered a clean right hand to score his first knockdown in the second round. Ortiz (33-3, 28 KOs) would hit the canvas for the second time in the round, but got back on his feet and delivered several hard left hands to stay in the fight and get through the round.
“I told you I was going to be a warrior and that’s what I did,” Ortiz said. “This is Cuba vs. Mexico. This is what I live for. war today There are always surprises in boxing, and that’s what you have if you didn’t think I would give it my all.”
Ortiz bounced back into the fight in the later rounds with some impressive boxing as he relied on his jab and movement to keep Ruiz from inflicting more damage. However, in the seventh round, Ruiz struck again, backing up his opponent with a straight right hand before moving in and dropping Ortiz with an overhand right.
“It was a tough fight,” Ruiz said. “I was waiting for him to charge up and counter him when he did. It was a blessing that we were able to succeed.”
Although Ruiz kept going, Ortiz again used his excellent boxing acumen to stay in the fight. Ortiz even had a slight 78-76 advantage in punches landed according to CompuBox, but it was Ruiz’s 67 power punches to Ortiz’s 56 that made the difference. After hurting Ortiz again in round 11 and winning the round on all three scorecards, Ruiz was able to hold off a late attack from Ortiz to win the fight on judges’ scorecards with scores of 114-111 twice and 113-112.
