elgigante
04-29-2005, 09:11 AM
WILL THE "QUIET MAN" MAKE SOME NOISE?
A PREVIEW OF JOHN RUIZ/JAMES TONEY
To many boxing fans, both hardcore and casual , the heavyweight division can best be described as in a state of disrepair at the moment. No real star stands out in todays division and over the past couple of years there have been some ugly bouts, both in effort and decisions that have not endeared fight fans to take notice. One of the main culprits of this in my eyes in WBA Champion John?The Quiet Man? Ruiz. Although his fight style is effective in getting decision wins, it is very boring to the average fan as Ruiz employs many undesirable tactics such as grabbing and clinching his opponent throughout bouts. Many have tried to knock Ruiz off his throne recently, including Andrew Golota, Hasim Rahman and Fres Oquendo but have fallen short of knocking John off his championship perch. The next challenger for Ruiz?s belt is a familiar name to most boxing fans but is entering what will be his toughest test to date in the division by far. That man is James ?Lights Out? Toney. Toney is trying to emulate Roy Jones Junior in jumping from the middleweight division and trying to capture a piece of the heavyweight crown. Will he be successful? Lets have a look.
James Toney is a man who has been in the boxing fans radar for well over a decade now. From his shocking 11th round KO over Michael Nunn back in 1991 to the complete embarrassment he suffered at the hands of Roy Jones back in 1994, Toney is a name that most fight fans know very well. He does not suffer from stage fright at all as he fought the very best in each division he has been through, including such fighters as Mike Mccallum , Steve Little, Iran Barkley and Vassily Jirov. He is a very talented man who has good boxing skills and a very good chin as he has never been stopped in his 75 bouts. The knock on Toney though is that his conditioning and mind set aren?t always the greatest. When he is motivated James is a world beater , as shown by his domination of Vassily Jirov and his bout against Nunn. When James is off his game though, he can get very sloppy as evident in his bout against Dave Tiberi many years ago and his 1997 loss to journeyman Drake Thadzi at 175 pounds. He is facing a man who although much maligned, is the WBA Heavyweight champion.
John? The Quiet Man? Ruiz is a much maligned fighter. He has a very solid record at 41-5 but the way in which he has won his past several bouts is just pretty ugly to watch. He holds wins over contenders such as Andrew Golota and Hasim Rahman but they were by no means boxing masterpieces. After a 1996 destruction at the hands of David Tua in 19 seconds, John almost seemed to go into a shell as a fighter. He became very defensive oriented and would incorporate tactics such as constant clinching and holding onto his opponents. Ruiz can be a good inside fighter and work uppercuts well as shown in his second bout with Evander Holyfield but it gets lost with his dirty tactics usually dominating bouts. These bouts included what should have been a probable loss to Andrew Golota which involved prolonged periods of Ruiz tying up Andrew and leaning on him after suffering an early knockdown en route to a disputed decision win . So can Ruiz come out of his shell and register a convincing win against Toney?
My take is no. This is only Toney?s third bout as a heavyweight and the other two were against lightly regarded prospect Rydell Booker and a very over the hill Evander Holyfield. They both were wins but Toney went the distance with Booker and Holyfields corner mercifully stopped the bout in the 9th round as Evander was not going to go down but was taking a ton of shots and not really defending himself. Toney has yet to be in with a fighter who A. Has a real heavyweights punch and B. Can mix it up on the inside. As much as Ruiz is maligned he does posses a pretty good punch, as evident by dropping the iron chinned Holyfield and roughing up Andrew Golota . Toney does not have the power to keep Ruiz from working his patented lay n pray inside game with uppercuts. In the end this will be his downfall and John Ruiz will quietly take a 12 round Unanimous decision. This is just the authors opinion though so tune in on April 30th on HBO to see if the Quiet Man can finally make some noise.
Discuss this article HERE. (http://www.bloodyknux.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2428)
-Tyler Horton (http://www.bloodyknux.com/forum/member.php?u=5)
A PREVIEW OF JOHN RUIZ/JAMES TONEY
To many boxing fans, both hardcore and casual , the heavyweight division can best be described as in a state of disrepair at the moment. No real star stands out in todays division and over the past couple of years there have been some ugly bouts, both in effort and decisions that have not endeared fight fans to take notice. One of the main culprits of this in my eyes in WBA Champion John?The Quiet Man? Ruiz. Although his fight style is effective in getting decision wins, it is very boring to the average fan as Ruiz employs many undesirable tactics such as grabbing and clinching his opponent throughout bouts. Many have tried to knock Ruiz off his throne recently, including Andrew Golota, Hasim Rahman and Fres Oquendo but have fallen short of knocking John off his championship perch. The next challenger for Ruiz?s belt is a familiar name to most boxing fans but is entering what will be his toughest test to date in the division by far. That man is James ?Lights Out? Toney. Toney is trying to emulate Roy Jones Junior in jumping from the middleweight division and trying to capture a piece of the heavyweight crown. Will he be successful? Lets have a look.
James Toney is a man who has been in the boxing fans radar for well over a decade now. From his shocking 11th round KO over Michael Nunn back in 1991 to the complete embarrassment he suffered at the hands of Roy Jones back in 1994, Toney is a name that most fight fans know very well. He does not suffer from stage fright at all as he fought the very best in each division he has been through, including such fighters as Mike Mccallum , Steve Little, Iran Barkley and Vassily Jirov. He is a very talented man who has good boxing skills and a very good chin as he has never been stopped in his 75 bouts. The knock on Toney though is that his conditioning and mind set aren?t always the greatest. When he is motivated James is a world beater , as shown by his domination of Vassily Jirov and his bout against Nunn. When James is off his game though, he can get very sloppy as evident in his bout against Dave Tiberi many years ago and his 1997 loss to journeyman Drake Thadzi at 175 pounds. He is facing a man who although much maligned, is the WBA Heavyweight champion.
John? The Quiet Man? Ruiz is a much maligned fighter. He has a very solid record at 41-5 but the way in which he has won his past several bouts is just pretty ugly to watch. He holds wins over contenders such as Andrew Golota and Hasim Rahman but they were by no means boxing masterpieces. After a 1996 destruction at the hands of David Tua in 19 seconds, John almost seemed to go into a shell as a fighter. He became very defensive oriented and would incorporate tactics such as constant clinching and holding onto his opponents. Ruiz can be a good inside fighter and work uppercuts well as shown in his second bout with Evander Holyfield but it gets lost with his dirty tactics usually dominating bouts. These bouts included what should have been a probable loss to Andrew Golota which involved prolonged periods of Ruiz tying up Andrew and leaning on him after suffering an early knockdown en route to a disputed decision win . So can Ruiz come out of his shell and register a convincing win against Toney?
My take is no. This is only Toney?s third bout as a heavyweight and the other two were against lightly regarded prospect Rydell Booker and a very over the hill Evander Holyfield. They both were wins but Toney went the distance with Booker and Holyfields corner mercifully stopped the bout in the 9th round as Evander was not going to go down but was taking a ton of shots and not really defending himself. Toney has yet to be in with a fighter who A. Has a real heavyweights punch and B. Can mix it up on the inside. As much as Ruiz is maligned he does posses a pretty good punch, as evident by dropping the iron chinned Holyfield and roughing up Andrew Golota . Toney does not have the power to keep Ruiz from working his patented lay n pray inside game with uppercuts. In the end this will be his downfall and John Ruiz will quietly take a 12 round Unanimous decision. This is just the authors opinion though so tune in on April 30th on HBO to see if the Quiet Man can finally make some noise.
Discuss this article HERE. (http://www.bloodyknux.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2428)
-Tyler Horton (http://www.bloodyknux.com/forum/member.php?u=5)