The John Ruiz reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

John Ruiz

John Ruiz, (born January 4, 1972), is a native of Isabela, Puerto Rico, who had a lifelong dream of becoming the first Latin American Heavyweight champion of the world.

Ruiz has been able to build a record of 40-5-1 with 28 knockouts.

Ruiz has gained a lot of critizism in part because of the way he won the Heavyweight championship. After champion Lennox Lewis beat Evander Holyfield to unify the crown, the World Boxing Association (WBA) demanded him to defend vs Ruiz. Lewis deemed Ruiz as 'non-deserving' and chose to leave the WBA belt vacant. After this, the WBA designated Ruiz and Holyfield to fight for the vacant crown, and Holyfield won on a controversial 12 round split decision. Because of the closeness of the bout, the WBA ordered an immediate rematch, and in a spectacular bout, Ruiz came back from having a swollen eye and dropped Holyfield in the 11th round, securing a unanimous decision and the realization of his dream: Becoming the first Hispanic Heavyweight champion of the world.

Ruiz defended the title twice, with a draw in a 3rd bout with Holyfield, and a 10 round disqualification win vs Canada's Kirk Johnson. Talks about a fight vs Mike Tyson were stalled because of a court decision ruling that because of contractual problems, they can't fight for the moment. And, as for Lewis, he never faced Ruiz inside a ring, announcing his retirement in 2004.

On March 1 of 2003, Ruiz lost the title, by a 12 round unanimous decision, to Roy Jones Jr.

On October 10 of that same year, it was announced that Ruiz would substitute for former rival David Tua (who beat Ruiz by knockout in 19 seconds in 1996) in a fight against former world Heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman for the interim WBA heavyweight title on December 13. Ruiz was the winner of that fight by a twelve round unanimous decision. Since Jonesdecided to keep campainging as a Light-Heavyweight, Ruiz is now officially, for the second time, the WBA's world Heavyweight champion. He joined a small group of fighters who have been Heavyweight champions of the world twice or more.

In his first defense as champion for the second time, Ruiz retained his title with an eleventh round knockout over Fres Oquendo at the Madison Square Garden, April 17 of 2004. This fight was twice historic because it was both the first time two Hispanics face each other for a world Heavyweight title, and the first time two Puerto Ricans fight for a world Heavyweight title. However, noted boxing critic Max Kellerman critizized the fight.

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