Andy Ruiz Jr drove three knockdowns to a narrow decision win over Luis Ortiz tonight, taking his second straight win after his 2019 rematch loss to Anthony Joshua.
Ruiz won on scores of 113-112, 114-111 and 114-111. Taking three points from Ortiz due to knockdowns, that would mean two judges even had it in rounds, 6-6, and one judge had Ortiz win seven rounds to Ruiz’s five. Bad Left Hook also scored 113-112 for Ruiz on our unofficial map.
It was a fight with bursts of action, especially in the second round where Ruiz scored two of his knockdowns. It should be noted that the second was a questionable decision by Referee Thomas Taylor, and had it not been counted Ruiz would still have won, but by a split decision, and the two cards in his way would have been by one point. In that case, we’d probably be talking a bit more about controversy.
But 43-year-old Ortiz (33-3, 28 KO) never really made a mark on this fight. Most rounds seemed to go in all directions Andy Ruiz approached them. If he lay back? at many, it was easy to score them for Ortiz, whose jabs could be said to carry rounds where, frankly, not much happened at all. And it wasn’t hard to find six or seven for the Cuban.
Ruiz (35-2, 22 KO) faced a left-handed opponent for the first time as a pro, and it showed, including the former title holder who usually circled the “wrong” way, in Ortiz’s power hand. It never quite bit him though, as Ortiz no longer has the legs to surprise opponents other than the timing they come in, and Ruiz was able to take advantage of that, also using his own speed and hand speed to stab Ortiz quite often, where Ortiz Couldn’t do much about it because it’s just slow now.
It wasn’t the all-star performance you’d like to see from Ruiz, but a lot of it was very smart, and he gets the job done. He won’t meet many fighters like Ortiz, and he knew that Ortiz was also dangerous with his strength and timing, if he gave him too many chances. We saw it almost late in the second lap, when Ortiz cracked him, and Ruiz clearly felt it. The fight was never the same from there, except for a good rush on lap seven when Ruiz dropped Ortiz for the third time.
“I thought I boxed him beautifully,” said Ruiz. “It was pretty hard, but the ability I have, my setbacks and connecting him and dropping him, it’s been a blessing.”
Ruiz said he wants to be more active. “I don’t want to wait that long to fight. I want to fight at least three or four more times. I’m ready, man, I’m hungry, I want to be champion again.”
Deontay Wilder, who returns on October 15 against Robert Helenius, and who tonight had about 20 percent of the total broadcast devoted to him, was in attendance, and Ruiz said he would welcome that as another fight: “Me and him in the same fight.” organization, Al Haymon can make this fight possible. Let’s do it, let’s do it.”
“Anyone who said ‘King Kong’ is old, I gave you a war today. I felt like I put in a great fight tonight,” Ortiz said through an interpreter, adding that he would like a rematch. “Do you think I’m ready? You saw a war here tonight. Do people think that ‘King Kong’ is over?”
Highlights of Ruiz vs Ortiz
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