BY MARCUS HENRY
John "The Quietman" Ruiz vowed to clean up the heavyweight division. So what else is new? The last thing boxing needs is for Ruiz to be crowned heavyweight champion. Unfortunately, it could easily happen. Ruiz (42-7-1, 29 KO's) squares off against Jameel "Big Time" McCline (38-8-3, 23 KO's) on the Oleg Maskaev-Samuel Peter card on March 8 in Cancun, Mexico. Maskaev is the current WBC heavyweight champion.
If Ruiz beats McCline, he plans on facing the winner of Maskaev-Peter.
“I’m getting ready to clean-up the heavyweight division, starting March 8 with McCline, and then I want the Maskaev-Peter winner,” Ruiz said in a statement from his Las Vegas training camp. “McCline almost beat Peter in his last fight and he’s a lot better than some people give him credit for. He floored Peter three times but we’ll see how tough he is on March 8."
While Ruiz' intentions might seem admirable, they look transparent to me. If Ruiz really wanted to make a statement, he would call out the winner of the February 23 unification bout between Wladimir Klitschko-Sultan Ibragimov at Madison Square Garden. This is all about Ruiz taking the easy way to a belt.
Comments (1)
This can't be happening. I almost wish he would fight Klitschko, just so he would get floored (provided Klitschko actually threw his right hand). But Ruiz has done nothing to deserve the money or attention of a title fight. If anything, he owes boxing fans some dollars for boring and aggravating them with his pathetic inactivity in the ring.