John Ruiz

John Ruiz
Data
Birth Name	John Ruiz
Fight name	The Quiet Man
Weight class	Heavyweight
nationality	US-american
birthday	4th January 1972
place of birth	Isabela
style	Left delivery
size	1.88 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	55
Victories	44
Knockout victories	30th
Defeats	9
draw	1
No value	1

John Ruiz (born January 4, 1972 in Isabela , Puerto Rico ) is a retired American boxer of Puerto Rican origin. He was twice heavyweight world champion according to the version of the WBA .

amateur

As an amateur Ruiz took part in the 1991 World Cup in Sydney , where he won light heavyweight wins against the Algerian Mohamed Benguesmia and the Yugoslav Miodrag Radulović, then lost in the quarterfinals to Andrei Kurnjawka from the Soviet Union , middleweight world champion from 1989. After qualifying for the When Jeremy Williams failed at the 1992 Olympic Games , he moved to the professional camp in the same year.

Professional career

John Ruiz played his first professional match in August 1992 in Atlantic City in the cruiserweight division. However, he then rose relatively quickly to the more lucrative heavyweight division. His first defeat he recorded in August 1993 against the undefeated Russian Sergei Kobatzew, a year later he lost to Danell Nicholson. In March 1996 he was knocked out by David Tua after just 19 seconds. He achieved his first major success by knocking out former WBA world champion Tony Tucker in 1998. This made boxing promoter Don King aware of him, with whom he was under contract until 2009.

At the end of 1999 he was supposed to compete as a challenger against the then WBA world champion Lennox Lewis in a compulsory defense, but this turned down due to the in his opinion poor boxing skills of Ruiz. The title was then declared vacant in April 2000.

On August 12, 2000 Ruiz fought against Evander Holyfield for the vacant WBA title and was defeated on points, Holyfield was the first boxer to be the fourth time heavyweight world champion. Since the victory was not undisputed, there was a rematch on March 3, 2001, this time Ruiz won on points. Ruiz thus became WBA world champion and the first Latin American to win a title in the highest weight class of professional boxing. He successfully defended the belt twice in a row, first in a third fight with Holyfield, which ended in a draw, and on July 27, 2002 by beating the unbeaten Kirk Johnson of Canada, who was disqualified in the tenth round for repeated low blows, although Ruiz was accused of having exaggerated the effect of these blows in order to provoke the end of the fight.

His third title defense against Roy Jones junior on March 1, 2003 he lost on points. Since Jones soon laid down his belt to return to the light heavyweight division, Ruiz was able to regain the WBA title in December 2003 with a points win against Hasim Rahman . He defended him twice more successfully, by technical knockout in the eleventh round against Fres Oquendo and against the Pole Andrzej Gołota , who knocked him twice to the ground, controversial on points.

On April 30, 2005 he boxed against James Toney and lost on points, Ruiz then initially resigned. However, it was later found that Toney was doped , so the fight was canceled and Ruiz was declared world champion again. Ruiz resigned from his resignation. However, he already lost his next title defense on December 17, 2005 in Berlin against the Russian Nikolai Valujew by a majority decision on points. The decision was controversial.

In November 2006 he made a comeback after a year of abstinence from the ring against the Uzbek Ruslan Chagayev in Düsseldorf . The fight was scheduled as the official elimination for a fight against Valuyev for the WBA title; Ruiz lost after twelve rounds by a 2-1 point decision.

After a victory in a build-up fight, he was given the opportunity again in March 2008 to play a WBC elimination match against Jameel McCline , a boxer also promoted by King who had not beaten a world-class opponent for years. Ruiz won on points.

He got the chance to become heavyweight world champion for a third time on August 30, 2008 in the rematch against Nikolai Valujew in Berlin. Chagayev had in the meantime risen to WBA title holder, but could not defend his title twice due to injury against Valuev, so that the Uzbek downgraded to "Champion in Recess" (world champion in waiting) and a fight between Valuev and Ruiz for the WBA vacant title has been set. The winner of the fight should then compete against Chagayev by June 26, 2009 at the latest, provided that one of the two remained the reigning WBA world champion until then.

John Ruiz was defeated on August 30, 2008 Nikolai Valujew a second time on points. After disputes with his promoter Don King, he separated from King in 2009. In that year he also played only one fight, an early victory against the Turkish Adnan Serin in November 2009. Nevertheless, the 38-year-old Ruiz got the chance to become WBA world champion again on April 3, 2010. He competed in Manchester against the reigning WBA title holder David Haye , but lost in round nine by technical knockout when his coach threw in the towel to give up, whereupon the fight was abandoned. After this defeat, Ruiz ended his active career.

List of professional fights

44 wins (30 knockout wins), 9 losses (2 knockout losses), 1 draw
year	Day	place	opponent	Result for Ruiz
1992	20th of August	Atlantic City, New Jersey, United States	Kevin Parker	Points victory (unanimously) / 4 rounds
	12th September	Wonderland Race Track, Revere, Massachusetts, United States	Mike Vasser	Victory / KO 1st round
	November 3rd	Foxwoods Resort, Mashantucket, Connecticut, United States	Barry Kirton	Victory / TKO 2nd round
	November 13th	Revere, Massachusetts, United States	John Basil Jackson	Points win / 6 rounds
	10th of December	Teachers Union Hall, Boston, Massachusetts, United States	Jesus Rohena	Victory / TKO 1st round
1993	January 16	Belmont, New Hampshire, United States	John Basil Jackson	Points win / 6 rounds
	January 30th	National Guard Armory, Chelsea, Massachusetts, United States	Miguel Rosa	Victory / TKO 2nd round
	20. February	Boston, Massachusetts, United States	Phil Prince	Victory / KO 1st round
	5. March	Boston, Massachusetts, United States	Derrick Jones	Victory / TKO 1st round
	March, 20th	Revere, Massachusetts, United States	Lorenzo Poole	Victory / KO 1st round
	3rd of April	Somerville, Massachusetts, United States	Juan Quintana	Points win / 6 rounds
	April 16	Boston, Massachusetts, United States	Mark Sonnier	Victory / TKO 1st round
	April, 30th	Chelsea, Massachusetts, United States	George Chambers	Victory / KO 1st round
	25th June	Chelsea AC, Chelsea, Massachusetts, United States	Exum Speight	Points victory (unanimous) / 8 rounds
	12. August	Casino Magic, Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi, United States	Sergei Kobotsev	Loss of points (split decision) / 10 rounds
	November 3rd	Whitchurch Leisure Center, Bristol, Avon, United Kingdom	Cordwell Hylton	Points win / 6 rounds
	November 27th	Cleveland, Ohio, United States	Carl Williams	Points win / 6 rounds
1994	25. May	Colston Hall, Bristol, Avon, United Kingdom	Julius Francis	Victory / KO 4th round
	25th June	Revere, Massachusetts, United States	Muhammad Askai	Victory / TKO 2nd round
	4th of August	Foxwoods Resort, Mashantucket, Connecticut, United States	Danell Nicholson vacant IBO World Championship	Loss of points (split decision) / 12 rounds
	October 1	Boston, Massachusetts, United States	Rick Sullivan	Victory / KO 2nd round
1995	February 4th	Las Vegas, Nevada, United States	Boris Powell	Points victory (unanimously) / 10 rounds
	March 30	York Hall, Bethnal Green, London, United Kingdom	Jack Basting	Victory / TKO 1st round
	17th of May	Ipswich, Suffolk, United Kingdom	Michael Murray	Victory / TKO 4th round
	June 16	Elephant & Castle Center, Southwark, London, United Kingdom	Derrick Roddy vacant WBC World Championship	Victory / KO 2nd round
	August 24th	Somerville, Massachusetts, United States	Willie Jackson	Victory / KO 1st round
	October 7th	Convention Center, Atlantic City, New Jersey, United States	Steve Pannell	Victory / TKO 4th round
1996	March, 15	Convention Center, Atlantic City, New Jersey, United States	David Tua WBC title defense	Loss / KO 1st round
	6th of June	The Roxy, Boston, Massachusetts, United States	Doug Davis	Victory / TKO 6th round
	July 18th	The Roxy, Boston, Massachusetts, United States	Greg Pickrom	Victory / TKO 1st round
	October 25	The Roxy, Boston, Massachusetts, United States	Nathaniel Fitch	Victory / TKO 3rd round
	November 26th	York Hall, Bethnal Green, London, United Kingdom	Yuri Yelistratov	Victory / TKO 3rd round
1997	January 14th	Hale Arena, Kansas City, Missouri, United States	Jimmy Thunder	Points win (split decision) / 12 rounds
	17th of June	Casino Magic, Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi, United States	Ray anise	Victory / TKO 1st round
1998	31 January	Ice Palace, Tampa, Florida, United States	Tony Tucker	Victory / TKO 11th round
	September 19th	Georgia Dome, Atlanta, Georgia, United States	Jerry Ballard	Victory / TKO 4th round
1999	March 13th	Madison Square Garden, New York, New York, United States	Mario Cawley	Victory / TKO 4th round
	June 12	Shriner's Auditorium, Wilmington, Massachusetts, United States	Fernely Feliz	Victory / TKO 7th round
	11th December	Grand Casino, Tunica, Mississippi, United States	Thomas Williams	Victory / TKO 2nd round
2000	12. August	Paris Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States	Evander Holyfield vacant WBA world championship	Loss of points (unanimously) / 12 rounds
2001	3 March	Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States	Evander Holyfield WBA World Championship	Points victory (unanimous) / 12 rounds
	15th December	Foxwoods Resort, Mashantucket, Connecticut, United States	Evander Holyfield WBA title defense	Tie (split decision) / 12 rounds
2002	July 27th	Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States	Kirk Johnson WBA title defense	Victory / disqualification 10th round
2003	1st March	Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States	Roy Jones junior WBA title defense	Loss of points (unanimously) / 12 rounds
	13th December	Boardwalk Hall, Atlantic City, New Jersey, United States	Hasim Rahman interim WBA World Championship	Points victory (unanimous) / 12 rounds
2004	17th April	Madison Square Garden, New York, New York, United States	Fres Oquendo WBA title defense	Victory / TKO 11th round
	November 13th	Madison Square Garden, New York, New York, United States	Andrzej Gołota WBA title defense	Points victory (unanimous) / 12 rounds
2005	April, 30th	Madison Square Garden, New York, New York, United States	James Toney WBA title defense	Invalid ("No Contest")
	December 17th	Max Schmeling Halle, Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin, Germany	Nikolai Valujew WBA title defense	Point loss (majority decision) / 12 rounds
2006	November 18	Burg-Waechter Castello, Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany	Ruslan Chagayev	Loss of points (split decision) / 12 rounds
2007	October 13th	Sears Center, Hoffman Estates, Illinois, United States	Otis Tisdale	Victory / TKO 2nd round
2008	8th of March	Plaza de Toros, Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico	Jameel McCline	Points victory (unanimous) / 12 rounds
	August 30th	Max Schmeling Halle, Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin, Germany	Nikolai Valujew vacant WBA World Championship	Loss of points (unanimously) / 12 rounds
2009	November 7th	Arena Nürnberger Versicherung, Nuremberg, Bavaria, Germany	Adnan Serine	Victory / TKO 7th round
2010	3rd of April	MEN Arena, Manchester, Lancashire, United Kingdom	David Haye WBA World Championship	Loss / TKO 9th round
(Source: BoxRec database )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ BoxingScene.com: John "The Quiet Man" Ruiz Announces His Retirement , April 26, 2010

Web links

• John Ruiz in the BoxRec database

predecessor	Office	successor
Evander Holyfield	Heavyweight Boxing Champion ( WBA ) March 3, 2001 - March 1, 2003	Roy Jones Jr.
Roy Jones Jr.	Heavyweight Boxing Champion ( WBA ) December 13, 2003 - December 18, 2005	Nikolai Valuev