Fits of laughter. Ruiz would give Joe a really hard fight though, for about 4-5 rounds, then I think Joe breaks through too often in one round and Ruiz starts to come undone a bit. In fairness to Frazier, once he had guys going a bit, he tended to keep them going.
A really hard fight??? Gtfoh... he gets Ron Stander treatment, lands some minor "big shot" in round one and then spends the brief remaining time missing and getting his face tenderized
Ruiz has some skills...n seem relax in the ring because of his amateur career. But Vitaly destroys his face....nicely...relax...business like...normal heart rate ...
I can’t picture that. Frazier would slip and block a lot of Ruiz’s shots and he’d land big left hooks. Similar to the one AJ floored him with, only Ruiz doesn’t get up.
In fairness, Joe never had handspeed like the modern guys. What I look at with Frazier is that he rarely had an easy fight with bigger men. I mean the size difference is huge, it's 3"-4" in height and 50lbs in weight alone. Joe had a great hook sure, but even Ali only weighed about 12lbs more than Joe. I think Joe gets through and does him I just don't think it's off single hooks is all.
Vitali loved him a shorter slower opponent. Check hooks and weird right hands all night, lots of movement, some jabs, a steady stream of weighty arm punches....
Ruiz would land on Vitali, that’s for sure. But I don’t think his power would affect Vitali, who took a really good punch.
Vitali also seemed to know how not to get hit. Look at Joshua, clueless by comparison. One had a real amateur background, the other hand a phony made up one.
