Ruiz not the fighter you thought you knew

John Ruiz has essentially been the castor oil of the heavyweight division for eight years. Whenever anyone saw him in a boxing ring they scrunched up their faces and said, "Yuk."

And it's not without justification. Whether it was his fault or not, Ruiz was involved in some of the worst fights in recent boxing history.

Ruiz is never going to be a heavyweight version of Jake La Motta, no matter what he tries. But, at the risk of being stoned, Ruiz has become well, sort of, you know, entertaining.

The best heavyweight on the card on March 8 in Cancun, Mexico, wasn't Samuel Peter, who clubbed Oleg Maskaev repeatedly and won the WBC title with a sixth-round stoppage.

Rather, it was Ruiz, who was professional, workmanlike and, truth be told, not that bad to watch in a one-sided victory over Jameel McCline.

"This," trainer Manny Siaca Sr. said proudly, "is the new John Ruiz."

The new Ruiz has a shot – perhaps a very good shot – to become a heavyweight champion for the third time Saturday when he takes on Nikolai Valuev for the interim WBA title at Max Schmeling Hall in Berlin, Germany.

Ruiz's history of more duds than Uwe Boll guaranteed that the bout wouldn't make American television.

Ruiz, though, is so certain that his fight with Valuev will be entertaining that he offered to bet reporters on who would initiate more clinches.

Ruiz offered to pay the pre-arranged sum to a charity of a reporter's choice if he held more than Valuev during the bout. If Valuev held more, though, Ruiz expected the reporter to make a donation to a charity of his choosing.

The offer was roundly laughed off, but Ruiz was serious. None of his last four fights – wins over McCline and Otis Tisdale and close losses to Ruslan Chagaev and Valuev – were televised.

In those fights, Ruiz was more often than not the man pushing the action. In Mexico, it might have been Ruiz at his career best. He raked McCline repeatedly and intimated the towering 6-foot-7, 270-pounder with his hard right hand.

By the fourth round, McCline looked like he wanted to be anywhere but in the ring with Ruiz.

"I'm giving them a chance to put their money where their mouths are," Ruiz said of his rationale behind challenging the world's boxing media. "Then, finally, they will realize I don't fight like I used to. No more clutching and grabbing for me."

Ruiz swearing off clutching and grabbing is almost as startling as Arnold Palmer swearing off golf. It only seems like he devoted his life to promoting the art of the clinch.

After being cleanly beaten by James Toney in an April 30, 2005, heavyweight title fight and earning the ignominious distinction of becoming the only heavyweight to twice lose his title to ex-middleweight champions, Ruiz had something of a metamorphosis.

In the hours after the Toney fight, you couldn't have found three people outside of the Ruiz family who would believe that he would again wear a heavyweight title belt.

But when Toney tested positive, the result was overturned and Ruiz had his belt back. And he vowed he'd do things differently. He knew where he stood in the eyes of the American media, boxing executives at HBO and Showtime and among the sport's most ardent fans.

With nothing to lose, he opted to eschew the style that enabled him to win his sport's grandest prize while earning jeers from those he desperately wanted to please. Win or lose, he decided he would start firing his punches and try to rebuild his reputation.

He lost a majority decision to the then-unbeaten Valuev, but walked out of the ring satisfied at least in regard to having kept his word. Two judges scored the bout 116-114 for the 7-foot, 320-pound Russian, while the other had it a draw at 114-114.

Ruiz, as virtually every fighter does, felt he had won. "Boxing is the only sport you can get robbed without a gun," Ruiz said.

He was encouraged by his effectiveness, despite giving away 10 inches and nearly 100 pounds to Valuev. And though he lost a split decision to Chagaev, who had subsequently taken the title from Valuev, he was convinced he was on the right track.

All Ruiz needed was to be given another chance.

That was no easy thing, considering how despised he had become by the boxing cognoscenti.

A second-round stoppage of the journeyman Tisdale did little to change any opinions, but his consistent work rate and superior accuracy against McCline certainly did.

When Chagaev was forced to pull out of the bout with Valuev because of injury, the WBA called him the champion in recess and ordered Valuev-Ruiz.

Siaca, whose son, Manny Jr., once held a super middleweight world title, is hardly a renowned trainer. But he made effective changes in Ruiz, somehow convincing him of the need to get off first and to win fights with his fists rather than his arms.

"I've been working on a lot of stuff with Manny like more balanced punching and a few new moves," Ruiz said. "When we get into the ring, I want him (Valuev) to be thinking about what he's going to do with me. He's not going to fight the same guy he did the first time.

“You can't let him stand there or he'll throw punches all night long. I'm going to take the fight to him and make him move around. I'm going to stay on him, surround him, and show him different angles and more combination punching."

The safest bet of the decade is the bout won't be the 2008 Fight of the Year.

But it might just be a fun fight to see.

That might have gotten you committed five years ago. Now, it might

just mark you as a fan who is paying attention.