By Adam Baskin: Andy Ruiz Jr’s explanation for why he couldn’t knock out Luis Ortiz last Sunday night is that he was worried one of his big shots would cut him.
Ruiz (35-2, 22 KOs) felt the 43-year-old Ortiz (33-3, 28 KOs) was dangerous whenever he hurt him, and he didn’t want to take any chances. Also, Ruiz says he was worried about running out of gas, since he hadn’t fought in 16 months before the Ortiz fight.
It looked like Ruiz didn’t want to get hit by Ortiz’s left hands, which did a number on his right eye. Ortiz was repeatedly catching Ruiz with big left hands when he was putting a lot of pressure on him after the three knockdowns.
Ruiz, 32, would have lost the fight if not for those knockdowns, considering he was outscored 10-2. The only rounds Ruiz looked good were the ones he scored knockdowns in the second and seventh.
It’s not surprising that Ruiz had so much trouble with the 6’4″ Ortiz because, prior to his upset win over Anthony Joshua in 2019, Andy was pretty much a ham-and-egg fighter.
Ruiz had never done anything to distinguish himself during his career and had already been defeated by Joseph Parker. Many boxing fans feel that Ruiz deserved a loss in his fight against Sergey Liakhovich.
The scores for last Sunday night were 114-111, 114-111 and 113-112. Again, if you take out the three knockdowns Ruiz scored, he would have lost the fight, which tells you that he is essentially a #7 heavyweight in the division.
You have to rank these fighters higher than Ruiz:
Oleksandr UsykTyson FuryDeontay WilderAnthony JoshuaJoe JoyceJoseph Parker
“A dangerous fighter is when he is hurt. That’s when he’s most vulnerable. When I took him down, I had to be safe and cautious because he was coming back,” Andy Ruiz told Fight Hub TV on why he was unable to knock out Luis Ortiz after taking him down three times.
“He was a veteran. I was holding back a lot because I felt like he was in the distance. He hadn’t fought in a long time. He just wanted to be smart, be cautious and didn’t want to hurt me with anything else.
“I didn’t want it to be like this, he drops me, I drop him, so I was trying to be cautious, counter him and win on points, and that’s exactly what I did,” Ruiz Jr. said.
