11.16.04 – By Izyaslav “Slava” Koza – Novirasputin@hotmail.com – To be perfectly honest, I despised Andrew Golota ever since that utterly shameful disgraceful performance he put on against Riddick Bowe in Madison Square Garden (twice, no less!). I am not one of his yuppy fan boys that thinks the Tyson and Lewis fights were some sort of warped dream, where the “foul pole’s” Vaseline bottle got the better of him and he lost. However, after watching the tape of this past Saturday’s fight against John Ruiz, I can also honestly admit, that not only did Andrew Golota make John Ruiz his – insert common term for a female dog – and kick his backside, but that he is rightfully the true champion of whatever ABC organization belt Ruiz (in a boxing sense of course) has in his possession.
No, this is not some rant about a moral victory, or how the Ref should have stopped it in round two, when Johnny boy tasted the canvas twice. I’m talking about the fact that not only should Ruiz have been disqualified by round eight or so (in my opinion, anytime after round four would be fine as well) but that when it counted, Golota did enough specific damage to Ruiz’s torso in particular to warrant, a not even close, but comfortable points win.
As I think about this fight, I am utterly disgusted at everything from Ruiz’s blatant fouling, to Norman Stone’s attitude. Not to mention the holding. Its as if nobody even pays attention to the fact that Ruiz just approaches Andrew and ties him up. I mean, how many times can this be allowed before he finally loses a point or is just simply disqualified? If anybody remembers my article on the Oquendo-Ruiz fight, I was more or less amused, because in that fight, Fres came in trying to out clinch Ruiz, so it wasn’t as if Ruiz was totally responsible. However, there is nobody else to blame it on, because Golota did his best to try to infight. Unfortunately, even though Norman Stone cursed referee Randy Neuman on occasion, Randy is probably the one person who saved Ruiz from being knocked out, and more importantly delivered him into the hands of the judges.
Am I saying Neuman was deliberately on Ruiz’s side? Not in the least, its just that when you take Ruiz’s strategy into perspective, it depends heavily on the referee, and how much he is asked to do in order to call it a fair fight (which most referees just won’t do). The common misconception is John Ruiz throws a punch and grabs, or as many call it, “the jab and grab,” and holds on for dear life. No, in actual point of fact, what Ruiz does is grab one arm of his opponent, and then starts to spasm his body back and forth as if he is working on the inside, or as someone so eloquently put it once “dry humping a tree.” What it does is create the effect that he is doing some sort of actual punching, when in fact, he is just pushing and so on to make it look like there is no need to call a halt to the action. After he does his little tango with his partner, he quickly wraps the other arm around, and turns his head to the side, so that when his opponent tries to answer back with actual inside punching, the referee yells “break” and Ruiz is hit when the referee calls a halt to the action. In this way, John Ruiz attempts to show he is a victim worthy of a few cheap points, as well as doing the inside work, when in fact, he is doing exactly nothing worth mentioning. It is pathetic, I know, but in terms of this fight that is just the beginning.
ROUND 1
I will concede that Ruiz won this round because he acted more aggressive and it was what seemed for him a low clinch round, as Golota stood back a bit and scoped out the scene.
10-9 Ruiz
Clinch count: 12 (I will only count Ruiz clinches as Golota barely had 10 in the whole fight, and really started doing most of them when he was hit well in the late rounds)
ROUND 2
A beautiful counter right thrown by Golota puts Ruiz on the canvas cleanly. When he gets up, he is still shaken and attempts to regrab Golota. Andrew then hits him with two body shots and Ruiz stumbles and falls. Some people claim this was not a legit knockdown, as there was no punch. However, my opinion is that if a fighter falls of his own accord when obviously hurt, it is not fair for his opponent to lose time, if this is called a slip. The clearest example I can give is the second knockdown in the Ibeabuchi-Byrd fight, when after Ike ripped a monstrous uppercut that crashed into Byrd’s jaw and sent him down to the canvas. After that vicious first knockdown, Ike came storming after Byrd and Chris fell down because he was still effected by the earlier punch. The referee rightfully gave a count, because if it is ruled a slip, Byrd would be given an unfair advantage to recover.
Basically, cart-blanche to fall down whenever you are hurt, as long as there is no punch. By the way, that will not be the first time that happens in this fight.
10-7 Golota
Clinch count: 13
ROUND 3
I honestly have no idea how this can be scored for Ruiz. Golota was attempting to at least be in there fighting in everyone of the 16 times Ruiz dove head first, or arms first and clinched. It was unimpressive, but, I mean, at least one guy was attempting as best as possible to make it a fight. I wouldn’t have complained if there would have been a point deduction. However, if I start to score rounds that way, most people will assume I am trying to give Golota free points, even though I think most people will agree that a point penalty would not have been out of the question against Ruiz.
Therefore: 10-9 Golota
Clinch count: 16
ROUND 4
At the two minute mark, on the break, Ruiz hits the back of Golota’s head. I would not necessarily claim that it was a penalty worthy deduction, even though this was not the first time Ruiz was warned, however, Randy Neuman chose to disagree. Personally, I would have taken a point away for the clinching rather than this, because that was the true catalyst for every single bad thing that happened in this fight. By the way, pay extra close attention to the masterful way John Ruiz purposefully goes down at about 1:45 of the round, just to emphasize how Golota is at least trying to fight, and Ruiz is trying to use the referee as a secret weapon.
9-9 round – because Ruiz did something or other that looked okay enough to make the round even with the official point deduction.
Clinch count: 15
Round 5
Ok guys, I counted no less then 20 clinches in this round, all initiated by Ruiz. Either with the head first tactic with arms around the waste, or grabbing one of Andrew’s arms and pushing down on the shoulder. Ruiz must have forgotten Andrew has a wife and kids. It was disgusting to watch and pathetic to describe, but how anyone can give this round to Ruiz, is beyond me. Some people say “well, he landed something here and there before each clinch, so he deserves the round for that.” In my opinion, when a fighter clinches excessively, he indicates he does not want to fight and therefore needs to either be admonished or simply disqualified. It was outrageously ugly.
10-9 Golota, because at least he tried to fight off in most of them, while Ruiz just clinched and waited for his savior, Mr. Neuman
Clinch count: 20
ROUND 6
A continuation of the previous round with about as much clinching initiated by Ruiz. In terms of scoring the fight, if you watch closely, it is abundantly clear to me that while Ruiz’s shots may have looked good, Golota’s work on the inside was more effective and was taking its toll on Ruiz, who was getting more exhausted.
10-9 Golota
Clinch count: 19
ROUND 7
Ruiz was a bit more affective and I kind of overlooked the clinching, which went down to a modest 13.
10-9 Ruiz
Clinch count: 13
Round 8
At this point in the fight, if I were the referee, I would disqualify Ruiz at :52 seconds of the round for excessive holding and a refusal to fight. Instead, the referee admonishes Ruiz with “you’ll hurt yourself that way.” This was also the magical round where Randy Neuman captured the hearts of boxing fans around the world by finally ejecting Ruiz’s trainer Norman Stone for excessive verbal comments. It was getting to the point where Stone was influencing the outcome of the fight, by constantly yelling at Neuman (in other words, he was apprehensive to take away points for Ruiz’s tactics because he might have felt the Stone insults, however, foul and juvenile, were true), and secondly, collectively pissing off everybody in sight. If I disregard all the clinching, however impossibly difficult it would be, the round becomes a toss up. I literally have a question mark on my scorecard.
10-10
Clinch count: 14
ROUND 9
This is a key round, in my opinion, because there is a very important issue that was practically ignored. Now, Ruiz may have landed the better, cleaner shots, but at some point in the round, when he came in for his roundly dose of clinch, Golota hit him with 2 very good body shots underneath. In my opinion, the reason I feel its key is because Ruiz was clearly winded, and decided to just take a knee, some time afterwards. To me, this looked to be a direct result of the body shots and not whatever scene Ruiz was trying to act out. Ruiz came into Golota, and Andrew was nowhere near leaning on him or doing anything that would cause this, so it was just a matter of Ruiz stopping the fight by taking a knee. That, in my understanding, is about as clear a knockdown as anything. I’m now sure if there wasn’t a punch directly before it, but where in the rules does it say that a fighter can just stop fighting and drop as if he is being knighted? It happened in the Golota-Byrd fight, and numerous times in other fights, most frequently in Spinks-Mayorga. In the end, it is unfair, and I think that had the referee begun the count, everyone would understand why he did so.
10-8 Golota
Clinch Count: 21
ROUND 10
Ruiz lands the harder shots and does the better damage, although I find that in each round, its as if the Golota shots, which were no less severe than Ruiz’s, in an overall sense, were completely ignored by both the commentators and the judges. I believe this was one of the rounds where Golota also held the most during the fight, with a grand total of about 3 clinches in the round. By the way, I hope everyone notices the classic Ruiz “I was barely hit in the neck, so I’ll go down and maybe they will take a point away,” peformance at the bell to end the round. Honestly, watch the replay and you’ll see that Ruiz does his best reprisal of the Kirk Johnson fight, where he squeeled when Kirk barely touched his belt line.
10-9 Ruiz
Clinch Count: 14
ROUND 11
Golota simply connects with the harder shots and Ruiz looks ready to go.
10-9 Golota
Clinch Count: 10
ROUND 12
Ruiz hurts Golota and Andrew clearly loses the round but holds on (figure of speech. Golota did some holding but nothing like a typical Ruiz round of clinching).
10-9 Ruiz
Clinch Count: 11
That said, I had it 115-110 for a fighter I have no great love for, but then again, I take into account the fact that boxing is about who fights better, or at least who tries to fight. In this case, that being Golota. Even as the totals were being announced, you could see Ruiz’s face was the equivalent of the face he had when Roy Jones spanked him (by the way, kudos to Jones for finding a way to praise Ruiz to make his win over him look better. Who are we kidding? Its not a style; Its plain illegal to constantly grab your opponent).
As far as Golota goes, considering that I now see him as a top two heavy (since his draw with Byrd, they are about tied for number 2) with Vitali holding the top spot by a bare margin, GOLOTA vs KLITSCHKO NEEDS TO HAPPEN, either that or Golota-Williams depending on the outcome of Vitali’s December 11th bout with Williams. I see no point in a Golota-Ruiz rematch unless Jay Nady is the referee (He refereed the Jones-Ruiz fight). In fact, I have completely forgotten about John Ruiz. I don’t dislike him as a person, because, hey, he might be a nice guy and all, but as a fighter, he is plain none awful. Unless Ruiz knocks out somebody soon, or cuts this clinch bull—t out, I will not recognize him as any sort of champion. The idea that Ruiz actually won because three judges sitting around the ring said so, is beyond my grasp. We, as fans, have to rise up against this ridiculous notion and give credit where credit is due.
On a final note, Jim Lampley concluded with the words “It could have been a lot worse,” and frankly, I just have to ask how? The worst Heavyweight champion, or any champion for that matter got a gift decision. Not to mention, Dinosaur Holyfield, who stood in there for yet another horrific beating. Unless Larry Holmes takes on Butterbean again in the next night of Heavyweight fights, IT CANNOT GET ANY WORSE.
I wrote this article because of one thing that I saw after the fight. It was that look Andrew Golota had when they announced the winner. It was so painful to see, how he was just utterly shocked, upset and frustrated, and not because he thought he had lost. Rather because somebody had ruined what was in his mind, which was an obvious moment of victory for him. I just had this feeling of extreme sadness, when during the credits after the PPV, they showed Golota with an ice pack on his knee in his dressing room, with what looked like tears on his face, and again not because he felt he lost, but because somebody took something away from him.
I a true a Golota hater, yet I had him winning it.
Agree/Disagree? All thoughts to Novirasputin@hotmail.com