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04/16/2005 Archived Entry: "New England Chatta"
New England Chatta
By J.D. Vena
History on the line for Ruiz
Other than having won versions of the heavyweight championship, what do "Gentleman" Jim Corbett, Gene "The Fighting Marine" Tunney, Gerrie Coetzee, Evander "The Real Deal" Holyfield and John "The Quietman" Ruiz all have in common? Though some are considered to be great in their own right, all have suffered the indignity of losing to a fighter that wore a version of the middleweight crown. On April 30th at Madison Square Garden, one of those fighters, Ruiz, could separate himself from this short list by becoming the only heavyweight champion to have lost to two middleweight champions.
Ruiz, a two time WBA heavyweight titlist and the only Latino to have ever won a heavyweight championship had his first reign ended by the legendary Roy Jones, Jr. in March of 2003. He regained the vacant title shortly after being declared the interim title by out-pointing another former champ, Hasim "The Rock" Rahman. Ruiz would not have the opportunity to avenge his humiliating loss to Jones when Jones unwisely returned to the light heavyweight division and was destroyed in two of his last three fights. This is why his next opponent, James "Lights Out" Toney, another 3-division champion could provide some redemption for his critics, should he win. But the proud Ruiz would never admit that.
"I put enough pressure on myself just to go out there and do what I intend to do," Ruiz explained during a media conference call on Thursday. "One thing for sure is I feel I am the best heavyweight out there and I have to go out there and prove it."
His compact opponent Toney, who despite his lengthy inactivity from injuries and the fact that he has spent most of his career fighting under the limit of 175 pounds, agrees.
"It is good to fight the best heavyweight out there which is John Ruiz," Toney admitted. "The reason why I am saying that is because he is the only one with the guts to step up to fight and it will be a great fight. It is actually a war. I love wars. Fighting is my game. I was born to fight. So I am ready to get it on. Whatever happens, I know I will be the champion that night and I am not discrediting John Ruiz in any way, but I cannot wait to get on with it. I am ready to make history."
For the last decade or so, Ruiz (41-5-1, 28 KOs) has just tried to get some credit. He's received some in doses after beating Evander Holyfield and Kirk Johnson but lost more than he gained in many peoples’ eyes when he let a 193-pound Jones dictate their 12 round fight two years ago. Ruiz has since topped Andrew Golota, Rahman and knocked out Fres Oquendo, fights in which he was the underdog. Ruiz will enter the ring an underdog against Toney but should he win, it is likely that he will be discredited by "beating an out of shape former middleweight champion." Ruiz doesn't understand this trend.
"Everyone is saying that he is one of the best heavyweights," Ruiz said. "Who has he fought as a heavyweight to be considered one of the best out there? It is something that puzzles me. When I became No. 1 in the WBC and WBA, everybody was criticizing me, saying that I was not really a No. 1 fighter in the heavyweight division. He should fight somebody in the top 10 to earn that spot. Here is James Toney. He becomes No. 1, but who has he fought? There is nobody criticizing him, but they are more than willing to criticize me."
After winning the IBF cruiserweight title from Vassily Jirov in April of 2003, Toney (68-4-2, 43 KOs) made the immediate jump to heavyweight. He made an immediate impact when he stopped Holyfield in a non-competitive fight. With those two performances, Toney topped many publication's Fighter of the Year honors, including the CBZ's. It's clear that thought Toney was impressive in dismantling Holyfield, the man formerly known as Real Deal, like many washed up champs, was more of a shell of his former self.
"You have to realize that Holyfield took too many fights there" said Ruiz. "When we fought, it was a tough fight. I felt like I won it, but they gave him the decision. He was on top of the world and the heavyweight champion. He should have retired then. The fights after that, he was getting worse and worse. When he fought Chris Byrd, Byrd made him look like he was not even there. Holyfield aged after the trilogy he had with me and never recovered from that."
Toney's only other victory since his demolition of Holyfield was against unbeaten but untested Rydell Booker, an easy victory for Toney, but not something which should have struck fear in the hearts of the divisions' top fighters but apparently, it did. Viltaly, who stands a good 9 inches taller and tops most people’s lists of top heavyweights, has clearly not shown any interest in Toney. Because of that Ruiz' focus to unify the title is directed to beating his mandatory, Toney.
"I think right now I respect my belt. I respect my mandatories and that is why I am taking this fight. The real deal for me is the unification. I want to go out there and unify these titles and bring some excitement back to the heavyweight division, which is what it needs right now. They do not need more fights. They need this unification. Otherwise, you might as well cancel the heavyweight division because nobody is really going to watch it."
With an exciting win over Toney, Ruiz at least would be able hold one distinction as being the only heavyweight champion of Latino descent rather than also holding the distinction as being the only heavyweight champ to lose to two former middleweight champs.
Fraza looking for another chance
It’s no secret now that Jeff “The Hellraza” Fraza was eliminated from the Contender series a few episodes back. Rather than losing in the ring, Fraza knocked out from an ailment which could have jeopardized the show. Jeff was eliminated when he contracted chicken pox. But the word is, Jeff may have a chance to live up to his moniker if on-line voting gives him that opportunity. According to reports and what Fraza was told by executives of the show, 6 of the eliminated boxers will have a chance to be voted to box on the undercard. Fraza hopes to see him step into the ring for the first time.
“I’m hoping for the sympathy vote,” Fraza told the CBZ. “I didn’t even have a chance to fight and this is a chance for me to prove that I not only belonged, but could have won it all.”
A few days ago, Fraza was working with his trainer and fan-friendly, “Irish” Micky Ward at the World Gym in Tewksbury, MA and was looking sharper than ever on the target pads.
“I have spent my whole career at 140 pounds,” admits Fraza. “But I feel no one can stop me at this weight. I’ve been comfortable adjusting to 152 pounds and will try to build myself even more without sacrificing any speed.”
The New England boxing world was saddened to hear the tragic news of the shooting death of Greg Cuyler, of Windsor, CT. Cuyler was a stand-out amateur boxer who won many regional titles at 112 pounds. At this time, no one knows why the shooting occurred.
Outside of that, there was some good news for New England amateur boxers who made some noise a few weeks ago in Colorado Springs. Edwin Rodriguez of Worcester, MA, who won the light heavyweight title this year at the New England Golden Gloves in Lowell, went on to win the U.S. National title, becoming the first boxer from Massachusetts to accomplish that feat since the great Marvelous Marvin Hagler in 1973. Demetrius Andrade of Providence also won a national title at 156 pounds this year. This is not rare for Rhode Island boxers because Matt Godfrey of Providence won the national heavyweight title last year and Jason Estrada also won a handful of national titles. Both Estrada and Godfrey are off to a nice start in the professional ranks but don’t expect Rodriguez to join them any time soon.
“Now that I’m on the national team, I’ll gain a lot of international experience which will help me when I do turn pro,” said Rodriguez, 22.
One fighter who can’t wait to turn pro is former Golden Gloves champ, Kermit Gonzalez of Methuen, MA who debuts tonight in Maine at Searsport High School. The show will be a pro-am with Gonzalez squaring off against journeyman, John Scalzi of Pennsylvania.
Gonzalez has also been doing some work at the World Gym in Teksbury and was put through an arduous target pad session by Ward’s brother/trainer Dick Eklund. After working with Mel Peabody for three rounds on the mitts, Eklund made Gonzalez go through another couple but the last one Eklund made him throw non-stop 1-2s. Everyone was wondering when he was going to make Gonzalez stop, even Gonzalez. Finally an exhausted Gonzalez stopped and sighed, “I’m not Micky Ward!”
Another amateur prospect to keep an eye on tonight is Carlos Lovado of Haverhill, MA. Lovado won the super-heavyweight Golden Gloves novice title in Lowell this year by stopping three of his four opponents.
“He is one of the hardest natural punchers I’ve ever seen,” said Peabody. “And when he gets in the ring, he doesn’t stop throwing bombs.”
Doors open at 7:00 P.M. with the first bout commencing at 8:00 PM. For ticket information, call 207-567-3047.
New England Ringside Promotions, the ever-expanding organization, which not only hosts one helluva weekly radio show on 1510 AM The Zone on Thursday nights and publishes a nice monthly magazine dedicated to boxing in its region, but also has begun its foray into the promoting business. In Ferbuary, they organization ran its first show at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium, which was headlined by top light heavyweight contender George Khalid Jones.
Yesterday, Rick Brutti, president of NER Promotions announced the signing of two-time Venezuelan Olympian, Patriz “El Elegante” Lopez. The 27 year-old Lopez is 2-0 and has had over 200 matches in his native Venezuela. He, like Jason Estrada is another 2003 Pan American Games Champion (at 141 pounds).
“Patriz Lopez is the first of many prospects we intend to sign this year,” Brutti said. “He was considered the best and most complete amateur boxer in Latin America for the past three years. With his success and international experience, we believe Patriz has all the makings of a future world champion. We plan to have him fight on our next pro card. NER Promotions is very excited about signing our first pro boxer and we look forward to building our stable exciting fighters.”
NER Promotions is planning on running a show next month, though it is still in the works as for a date and the fighters on the card. Don’t call me a genius but expect Lopez to appear on the card.
