A victory over Anthony Joshua has catapulted Ruiz into the land of eternal opportunity, writes Jack Hirsch
IN 2012, a welterweight from Riverside, California named Josesito Lopez created a stir by breaking the jaw of favorite Victor Ortiz and stopping him in five rounds. Although López was already established to some extent, his popularity level was not high. The upset victory over the charismatic Ortiz changed that and would give him a level of status that Lopez would maintain no matter what he did in the future.
Lopez capitalized on victory over Ortiz in fights with Canelo Alvarez, Marcos Maidana, Andre Berto and Keith Thurman, predictably losing to each. Regardless, López continued to receive television exposure on the undercard of major events. He always reminded us, directly or indirectly, of his distaste for the erratic Ortiz. In essence, what Lopez received for beating Ortiz was a gold card that gave him a plethora of opportunities rarely received by a fighter of his caliber.
One wonders if Andy Ruiz will become the heavyweight version of Lopez. Ruiz is not a bad guy. On the contrary, he is humble and polite. His modesty is commendable, but his level of motivation can rightly be questioned.
Three years ago, Ruiz picked up his gold card at Madison Square Garden, stopping Anthony Joshua for what many considered the rightful world heavyweight championship. Ruiz didn’t have a full training camp, arriving on short notice when Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller failed a drug test. Some said Joshua took Ruiz too lightly. Others said Ruiz, after being knocked down and seemingly headed for an early loss, landed the equivalent of a fluke that threw Joshua off balance from which he couldn’t recover. Whatever his point of view, the result became less about Ruiz and more about Joshua.
Ruiz had a chance to spotlight himself, just as Oleksandr Usyk did recently in his rematch with Joshua. Usyk trained as hard for the encore as he had for the first outing. As a result, he prevailed again. Usyk’s level of pride was such that he gave his best in training, working as humanly as possible. This is in contrast to Ruiz, who came into the Joshua rematch overweight, unfocused and lacking the pride of a champion.
Joshua may have just loaned Ruiz his title, but he also made him a long-term fixture in the heavyweight division.
In the lead up to Ruiz’s fight with Luis Ortiz, we were constantly reminded of how hard he was training. It was as if we needed to be convinced. Perhaps the same is said on occasion of the rest of the big names in the division, but in the case of Ruiz, you have to be calm.
Assuming Deontay Wilder defeats Robert Helenius next month, the PBC will likely pit him against Ruiz the next time he provides another big payday for the California-based Mexican, one he doesn’t deserve unless he believes beating Luis Ortiz, 43, deserves such an award. This is the same Ortiz who in his last game looked his age, being terribly slow before coming back to stop Charles Martin. Based on that performance, it was hard to visualize him being competitive with any qualified fighter let alone beating them.
But that’s what he came close to doing against Ruiz, coming up short, but actually winning more cumulative rounds if we combine all three judges’ scorecards. In the previous fight, Ruiz had to come off the canvas to get past another former heavyweight in Chris Arreola. Three trainers in his last four fights tell you Ruiz is either a perfectionist or he doesn’t want to be pushed too hard in training camp. He chooses your option.
After Joshua’s loss to Usyk, Ruiz called for a decider match against him. “We have unfinished business,” he stated. Joshua shouldn’t pay attention to her. As far as he’s concerned, the book should probably be closed on Ruiz once and for all. For the rest of us, it won’t be for long. After all, Ruiz has his gold card in a sport that is more dedicated to Ruiz than he is to him.
