Boxing

 

Ruiz and Manager Very Confident of Victory over Jones

by Kent Appel

12.02 - I asked questions of WBA heavyweight champion John Ruiz and his manager, Norman Stone this morning, February 11, 2003, during a nation wide press conference by telephone conference call concerning Ruiz’ upcoming bout with light heavyweight champion Roy Jones Junior. To say Ruiz and Stone are confident of victory is an understatement as the pair, especially Stone, gave the impression that there was no way Ruiz, a 2 to 1 or 3 to 1 underdog at this point with just under three weeks until the March 1, 2003 fight, could possibly lose.

I asked Ruiz why he was taking this fight when it was a champion’s prerogative to take an easier fight or two once he became a champion before diving into tough competition. After all, Ruiz has recently had a difficult title defense against Kirk Johnson as well as the trilogy with the always hard charging former world champion Evander Holyfield. Mr. Stone handled the question by saying to me, "you just answered your own question" meaning, that the Jones fight is an easy fight. Stone also said, "John will knock out Jones with a jab and he amended his earlier prediction of a seventh round knockout to, "maybe even earlier than this."

I also commented that at the recent Mayorga verses Forrest card I chatted briefly with IBF heavyweight champion Chris Byrd and that Byrd had told me he wanted the winner of Ruiz verses Jones. I mentioned that Byrd had said if Jones is the winner, that Jones didn’t want to fight Byrd. I asked Mr. Stone if because of Byrd’s unorthodox counter punching style, if Ruiz also might not want to fight Byrd and he replied, "we’ll be glad to take two easy fights in a row."

That Ruiz is relaxed and confident of his chances to defeat Jones was obvious in the way the press conference started out. Ruiz said that he had made a poster drawing of Jones and it showed Jones in three stages, before the fight looking normal, during the fight looking somewhat hurt, and after the fight looking destroyed. Ruiz also said he drew in a tattoo on Jones in the poster with the writing, “mommy help me!” on the after the fight image. Stone also chimed in, “John loves to eat Popeye chicken.” When a reporter asked how Ruiz would deal with Jones’ gamecock style. The two men were quite entertaining for the reporters who took part in the conference. A bit of difference to Ruiz’s perceived image as the "Quiet Man."

One of the main reasons for Ruiz’s confidence is because he said Jones’ perceived speed advantage is overrated and that because Ruiz has been training hard and he will come in at lower weight than he has in years, between 220 to 224 pounds. He feels that it will make him more mobile and that Jones will have nowhere to hide. This coupled with the fact that Ruiz has been training with light heavyweights and cruiserweights during his training camp for the fight, which makes him used to facing fighters faster than most heavyweights. He also feels that Jones is making big mistake by weighing heavier than he is used to, a reported 190 to 194 pounds by the weigh in the day before the fight and maybe even heavier at fight time. Ruiz’s belief is Jones will not be able to move as well as usual.

Another reason for Ruiz’s assured attitude of victory is Jones has never faced adversity in the ring like Ruiz has and according to Ruiz, Jones has never been hurt badly in the ring. How well will he react? “This is something we will find out,” said Ruiz. Ruiz and Stone also alluded to the fact that Jones may not be able to take a heavyweight punch of the caliber of Ruiz’s and that there are doubts that Jones, at over thirty pounds lighter than Ruiz, might not be able to hurt Ruiz with his punches.

On the subject of whether the bout will come off as scheduled due to the fact that even at this late date Jones has not signed a contract for the fight, the one and only Don King, who is promoting the fight and who also took part in the press conference had this to say, “there is no dubiousness because Jones hasn’t officially signed. The fight will go on as scheduled.”

My feeling on the fight is Ruiz will be too strong and powerful for Jones and even though Jones may be one for the ages at the 175 pound light heavyweight limit, he is going to join most of the other light heavyweight champions of the past and he is going down to defeat, by a knockout around the eighth round. It is too much of a size difference to overcome and if great light heavyweights like Bob Foster, Billy Conn, and Archie Moore couldn’t pull off the feat, than Jones won’t be able to do so either. I know Michael Spinks did defeat an aging Larry Holmes for the heavyweight title back in 1985, but I don’t think Spinks could have ever defeated Holmes if he hadn’t caught Holmes on the way down.

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