01.12.04 – By Jim Amato: John Ruiz is the best promoted heavyweight since Gerry Cooney. I just can’t figure out how he is still around. He wasn’t supposed to beat Holyfield, Kirk Johnson or Rahman but somehow he did. I thought Golota won over Ruiz but Andrew was getting hit with some right hands from Ruiz that should have never landed and that may have swayed the vote. I thought Fres Oquendo was going to beat Ruiz but he didn’t. I thought after Roy Jones humiliated him that he was through. WRONG ! This guy just won’t go away.
In my opinion he is one of the worst boxers ever to hold a piece of the heavyweight crown. His management kept him far, far away from Lennox Lewis. They steered clear of Tyson. He never fought David Tua again.Who can blame them ? Ruiz is boring to watch and rather one dimensional. I’ll give him this, he is strong and has a decent chin (The Tua fight aside ). He is in the best term I can come up with, gritty.
I saw him fight years ago in Cleveland when he was just a prelim boxer.If someone would have told me then that one day he would be champion and have a long reign I would have been hysterical with laughter.
As for Randy Neumann, I remember Randy when he was an active fighter. He was a good boxer a tough too. He just lacked the big punch. I think that he is a very good referee, one of the best in the business. He is a no nonsense guy and I think because of his size and strength he does a great job handling heavyweight fighters. There is nothing I hate more then watching two huge heavyweights wrestling around in clinches and some referee that is half their size struggling to pull them apart. What are these commissions thinking when they make their refereeing appointments ?