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12/10/2003 Archived Entry: "New England Chatta"
New England Chatta
By J.D. Vena
Photos by Emily Harney
The Quietman Gets Back
The Quietman with Stone
Norman Stone remembers the day very well when he arrived in Lake Placid to meet his promising amateur fighter from Chelsea, MA. It was 1992, and John Ruiz, a twenty year old who had upset two-time world amateur light heavyweight champion and eventual Olympic gold medal winner Torsten May of Germany in a recent tournament, was preparing for the U.S. Nationals.
“John was by himself for the first time,” recalls Stone. “I was coming in to help him get ready for the tournament and keep him company but I couldn’t find him. I saw a boxer I knew named Julian Wheeler and asked him if he knew where I could find John. Wheeler said, ‘Who, the quiet kid?’ Right then and there I thought that the Quietman was a perfect name for him. He’s always been quiet, but all business whenever he walked into the gym or stepped into the ring.”
After losing a controversial decision to Jeremy Williams at the Olympic Trials in Worcester, later that year, Ruiz turned professional. Stone or Stoney to his friends became his vocal manager and Ruiz would do all the talking with his fists. Their approach has been one of the major keys to their success.
Despite all of their detractors and a few setbacks, Team Ruiz, a product of the Somerville Boxing Club, rode all the way to winning the WBA heavyweight title, which he defended twice and made millions in the process. But like all good things, Ruiz’ reign as champion ended when he dropped a wide decision to one of the sport’s greatest superstars, Roy Jones, Jr. this past March. Going into their match, Ruiz was completely out of his character, taunting Jones and calling him his “bitch” at the weigh-in.
Losing the title was the beginning of more bad things that would haunt the Quietman. Just months after losing his title, Ruiz would finalize a divorce with his wife and high school sweetheart, Sahara. Ruiz’s world was falling apart.
“Johnny’s mind was other places for his last three fights,” said Stone. “When you’re going through domestic problems like that you can’t train and you most certainly can’t fight.”
The problems began when Ruiz, Sahara and their two children moved away from his native Chelsea, to Las Vegas, notoriously known as the ‘City of Sin.’ Ruiz was away from the streets he ran, the gym where he trained and the people like trainer Gabe Mari, attorney Tony Cardinale and Stone. Whether the move to Vegas had much to do with the beginning of the end for Ruiz, it seems that Ruiz’ return to Somerville to train for his meeting with former heavyweight champion Hasim “The Rock” Rahman this Saturday night has been the best move he’s made in a long time, according to Stone.
“He’s been training as hard as he was when he was coming up,” said an enthused Stone. “His sparring has gone great and he’s just been no-nonsense. I won’t even tell you what he’s weighing right now.”
Whether that is an insinuation of Ruiz having packed on some bulk, he’ll need some thud to hold off and defeat the last man to knock Lennox Lewis flat.
“Wait ‘til you see Johnny’s jab,” said Stone. “Rahman is big strong fighter but he’s not going to be the bully in the ring on Saturday night. Rahman likes to come off like he’s the boss in there, but Johnny is going to show him who’s boss.”
Whether Ruiz will be the boss or not on Saturday night, at least Ruiz is back being what brought him to the top. He's back to being the Quietman.
Simms Getting a Crack
The Quietman isn’t the only New Englander appearing on Don King’s “Back to Back to Back” extravaganza. Somewhere sandwiched in the marathon of big fights, undefeated Travis Simms (22-0/ 17 KO’s) of Norwalk, CT will be getting a shot at WBA jr. middleweight champion, Alejandro Garcia (27-0/ 27 KO’s) of Mexico.
Most New Englanders, including yours truly aren’t well acquainted with Simms or his undefeated brother Tarvis. That has much to do with the fact that the two have fought relatively outside of New England most of their careers. In fact, Travis has fought only twice in his home state of Connecticut. Also, he hasn’t been featured on television. Despite his obscurity and lack of exposure, Simms has a decent chance according to former world title challenger “Ice” John Scully.
“Travis is a good boxer with fast hands,” said Scully. “He has not faced a high level of competition in his career. His best win is a 6-round decision over Australian Kevin Kelly (who lost in a bid for David Reid’s WBA title four years ago). Garcia is a rugged fighter and has good power. Since Travis has never gone the distance with any solid competition, it’s hard to say how he’ll react when he gets into the later rounds. Skill-wise, Simms is a better than Garcia, but he hasn’t done enough to make an evaluation about other aspects of his game.”
If you want a better look at Simms, check out Thomas Gerbasi’s piece (Travis Who? Travis Simms, That’s Who) at www.maxboxing.com.
With no other shows scheduled in New England and with Simms and Ruiz being the last New England’s fighters to step into the ring, boxing in New England will say goodbye until early next year. But fear not, boxing in New England starts off with a bang as early as January 3rd. In a highly anticipated Showtime doubleheader at Foxwoods Casino, Germany’s Artur Grigorian (36-0/ 21 KO’s), the undefeated WBO lightweight champion will attempt to make his 17th defense when he takes on the very popular Acelino Freitas (34-0/ 31 KO’s) of Brazil. Freitas, in case you come from another planet is leaving the jr. lightweight division, a class he won two world titles (WBO and WBA jr. lightweight) ,11 title fights, one of them being his signature win over Cuba’s Joel Casamayor. In what may be the best fight of the night, familiar Ugnandan, Kasim Ouma (18-1-1/ 12 KO’s) returns to face former world title challenger J.C. Candelo (27-5-3/ 19 KO’s) in a world title eliminator. Teddy Reid, the NABF welterweight champion and Terrence Cauthen will also be featured in separate bouts. For ticket information call 800-200-2882.
A week later, Dibella Entertainment and ESPN2 Friday night fights returns to the Mohegan Sun to showcase middleweight sensation Jermaine Taylor (18-0/ 13 KO’s) of Little Rock, AR and his quest for a world title. Taylor will face veteran Alex Rios in a 12-rounder. In the co-feature, hard hitting jr. lightweight Nate Campbell (23-1-1/ 21 KO’s) of Jacksonville, FL will try to fill the big void of Freitas’ departure as a top dog when he faces top contender Daniel Attah of Nigeria. Attah is one of three fighters to extend Freitas the 12-round distance. Undefeated Sachew Powell is also slated to appear on the show. For ticket information call 800-477-6849.
Two weeks later, a rematch of one of this year’s best fights will take place at Foxwoods Casino, the same venue where their first memorable war took place. The NABF super-middleweight title fight between New Bedford’s Scott “The Sandman” Pemberton (26-3-1/ 21 KO’s) and New Jersey contender Omar Sheika in July was one of the more exciting fights to take place in 2003. In a see saw fight that saw both men shaken up, Pemberton won out by split scores of 114-113, 114-113 and 111-116. Though many had argued over the verdict, everyone agreed that the fight was what some like to call a throwback and on January 23rd, Pemberton and Sheika will meet again. On the undercard, fans will get a chance to see how far the “Pride of Providence” Peter Manfredo, Jr. has developed since last appearing on ESPN2. Manfredo, now 19-0 with 7 KO’s will face fellow unbeaten Sherwin Davis (17-0/ 11 KO’s) in another 12-rounder.
Manfredo recently re-signed with his original promoter Jimmy Burchfield and will now showcase the skills no one has seen in nearly two years.
“We are truly excited to start the year off with a card of this quality,” said Burchfield. “Pemberton-Sheika I was a Fight of the Year candidate and everybody’s been waiting for this rematch. We went out and got a tougher fighter for Peter. Sherwin Davis knocked out the Olympian, Dante Craig.
Also appearing on the show will be fast rising featherweight Angel “Gee-Roc” Torres (14-2/ 5 KO’s) of Manchester, CT and Providence locals Bobo Starnino and Joey Spina. For more information call 401-724-2253.
Replies: 1 Comment made on this article
MANFREDO HAS 9 KO'S
Posted by jp @ 12/15/2003 03:13 PM EST
