Heavyweight John Ruiz W12 Jameel McCline Scores: 119-109, 118-110, 117-111 Records: Ruiz, 43-7-1, 29 KOs; McCline, 38-9-3, 23 KOs Rafael's remark: Like it or not, Ruiz, a two-time titleholder, is back in the title hunt with this lopsided victory against McCline, a man who last fall was within a whisker of knocking out Samuel Peter. Ruiz, 36, can still fight, even if he's not the prettiest to watch, and his ties to powerful promoter Don King mean he's destined for another opportunity. Ruiz still held, grabbed and fought like an octopus at times, but it really wasn't all that bad. The real culprit in this sometimes ugly fight was McCline, who hung all over Ruiz and looked exhausted after only a few rounds. Ruiz, meanwhile, came to work. He was firing combinations -- yes, it's true -- at McCline late in the fight. His pairing with trainer Manny Siaca Sr. over the past few fights seems to have made some difference in his fighting style. He won his second in a row after dropping two in a row to Nikolai Valuev, who took his title, and Ruslan Chagaev, in an eliminator. McCline, 37, the hard-luck four-time title challenger, was unable to rise to the occasion as he lost his third in a row. At this point, McCline unfortunately has fallen into the role of stepping-stone opponent. He had a nice run for a guy who started boxing in his 20s and had virtually no amateur experience, but the days of important fights are over. From the Globe : The undercard bout featured much of the clutching and grabbing expected from Ruiz (43-7-1) and McCline (38-9-3), but the aging veterans also provided many moments of good action as they tried to keep their title dreams alive. McCline lost to Peter in his last bout despite flooring the Nigerian star three times in the first three rounds, while Ruiz was winless in three straight bouts before an easy victory last October. Ruiz landed many of his best punches in the 11th round to punctuate his easy win by judges' scores of 119-109, 118-110, and 117-111. He became the WBC's No. 3 challenger with the win... Supposedly, he broke McCline jaw in the 4th, the same McCline who arguably beat Peter. Ruiz is still one of the best hw out there, his only real loss recently was to Chagaev and it was extremely close fight than many had him winning. I'd love seeing him ktfo Wlad
Not really. The only thing that made the fight "close" was that it was in Germany, where evey decision is labeled as questionable by American visitors. However Ruiz still is one of the most difficult guys to beat out there
:doh: :doh: The fight is on youtube, everyone can see it, and it is indeed an extremely close fight, Ruiz won at LEAST 4 rounds, and there was plenty of close rounds that could have gone either way.
..... Ruiz beat Valuev clear as hell. However he also lost to Chagaev very clearly. That fight wasn't that hard to score. Chagaev won 8 rounds.
Been a while I saw it, but if my memory serve me well, I had Ruiz taking rounds 1-2-9-10-11 and 1 even round ( I think it was the 4th round ). A draw would have been legit but I've got to admit it that a Ruiz win ( while many see it this way ) wouldn't seem fair in my mind ( While taking into account the whole fight, not rbr ). A 4 pts win for Chagaev seems excessive imo.
Most people who actually saw the fight thought Ruiz lost which is fine because he did. I really don't think a draw was reasonable, 115-113? Maybe, but Chagaev landed the cleaner shots in most of the rounds which won him the fight clear. Most thought Chagaev won but a couple did call it a robbery. :laughing: So I watched it and scored very closely. Plus it wasn't a bad fight.
I agree Ruiz won four rounds, five if you want to be generous. No way he won the whole fight. So even though the point difference wasn't wide, there was only one winner.
dsimon writes: I know people are now going nostralgic for the garbage man... so I thought I would post this reminder: He sucks! his old manager Stoney throws more punches than he does!
McCline obviously has a huge size advantage over Roy, but i think if Jones gave him a menacing stare he'd win easy.
I have seen the late rounds of it. Ruiz was pretty much the same as he used to be. By rushing to clinches he takes away his opponents time to settle and counter and steals rounds with occsional punches. Fighters who are not quick enough to time his rushes (Jones, Toney, Chagaev) are still going to be in trouble with him
John Ruiz may be a hard guy to llook good against,...because he fights so ugly. But it is time someone in the division does the sport AND the division a favor and brutally knock him out and rid us of this piece of shit. Tua did his part........now it's someone else's turn.
dsimon writes: Figures that Ruiz would want in with this bunch of losers. Ruiz can flourish in this division because of the lack of talent and because of fans like Dympimpel. :doh: Maybe Ruiz will reason out that he can beat Wlad and Wlad will lay a serious beating on him.... that would be nice.
He tried to do that against Valuev, but the shots he threw before hugging got tangled up in bigfoot's branches, Ruiz lost a close fight through Valuev's clean jabs, 'aggression' is no good if the shots don't land. I had it 6 - 5 - 1, a draw being generous to Ruiz, it was no robbery.
