Tabiti Believes He Can Beat Andy Ruiz When He Moves To Heavyweight

[Ruthless-RKO]

Andrew Tabiti (17-1) appeared on Mayweather Promotions' Instagram Live stream last week for a fan question and answer session. Mayweather Promotions' CEO Leonard Ellerbe served as the moderator.

One of the questions asked of Tabiti was his thoughts on former undisputed cruiserweight champion Oleksander Usyk's chances for success in the cruiserweight division.

"Usyk is a (Olympic) gold medalist. He is a real good fighter. My thoughts on him being a heavyweight? I think it is going to be tough for him fighting those big guys like Joshua and Wilder. It could be tough but then again he is a good boxer. He has good craft, southpaw, so he can do some things in the division, 100%. That is definitely a fight I want to get when I become a heavyweight," Tabiti explained.

Tabiti has been out of the ring since his June, 2019 loss to Yuniel Dorticos in the semi-finals of the World Boxing Super Series tournament.

The covid-19 coronavirus pandemic has paused all boxing for the time being which has pushed back Tabiti's ring return but he hopes to have a busy second half of the year.

Without being asked, the 30-year-old also laid out his hit list for when he moves up in weight.

"I would like to fight Usyk, Andy Ruiz, we could fight Michael Hunter, Gerald Washington, Charles Martin, everybody. Just line them up," Tabiti explained.

When asked by Ellerbe to reveal his long-term and short-term plans, Tabiti made it clear that he first wants to take care of unfinished business in the cruiserweight division.

"Short term I want to get a couple belts at cruiserweight so hopefully this is my last year. Then try to get a rematch with Dorticos and get that belt then fight for the WBC belt then go straight to heavyweight in a year and a half. We could fight Charles Martin right away, a Gerald Washington right away. I think I have the skills to fight Andy Ruiz. I think I can beat him," said Tabiti.

By Ryan Burton

[Onetimeonly]

Of course he could. I doubt Ruiz fights anyone for a couple years, but I don't think he'll ever win an even remotely significant fight again.

[gilgamesh]

He's probably right.

[lazboy]

Tabiti fights scared. He also doesn’t have the output to keep Ruiz off him. I guess his hype is renewed..hype he had until It was derailed in the cw tournament.

[margaret thatcher]

Not very impressed by Tabby at all, I was one of the people saying Ruiz is a flash in the pan but I think he'd beat Tabiti.

[Perseus]

He won't beat Andy to the buffet.

[margaret thatcher]

Depends, if it's a vegetable buffet he might

[lazboy]

It’s interesting that he called out Gerald Washington of all people....I see that as a 50/50 type of fight or might even favour Washington. That’s not something you often hear.

[gilgamesh]

Tabiti fights scared. He also doesn’t have the output to keep Ruiz off him. I guess his hype is renewed..hype he had until It was derailed in the cw tournament.

Keep Ruiz off of him?

If Tabiti don't do sh*t, Ruiz won't either.

He's usually content just to kinda hang in there, and go through the motions.

The first AJ fight is basically the only time I've ever seen him get aggressive, and I think it was because AJ was bringing it to him so hard.

[lazboy]

Tabiti fights scared. He also doesn’t have the output to keep Ruiz off him. I guess his hype is renewed..hype he had until It was derailed in the cw tournament.

Keep Ruiz off of him?

If Tabiti don't do sh*t, Ruiz won't either.

He's usually content just to kinda hang in there, and go through the motions.

The first AJ fight is basically the only time I've ever seen him get aggressive, and I think it was because AJ was bringing it to him so hard.

Maybe you haven’t seen the Parker fight. I thought he did enough to win. Ruiz gets his work done, due to his weight issues his feet are slow. That’s his problem. Tabiti on the other hand doesn’t do s%#t as you put it.

[gilgamesh]

I thought Parker beat Andy. Wasn't much of a fight. Was competitive and close though.

[lazboy]

Convo's going nowhere. I feel you're generally very harsh on the fat boys of the division.

[Billy Da Kid]

This bum is irrelevent at cruiser and heavy.

[gilgamesh]

Convo's going nowhere. I feel you're generally very harsh on the fat boys of the division.

I definitely am. Being fat and out of shape means you're not giving your best effort, and therefore I don't look at those guys with the same reverence as I would the guys that clearly give their best.

[lazboy]

Convo's going nowhere. I feel you're generally very harsh on the fat boys of the division.

I definitely am. Being fat and out of shape means you're not giving your best effort, and therefore I don't look at those guys with the same reverence as I would the guys that clearly give their best.

Well, then you risk underrating them - like you did Tyson Fury.

[gilgamesh]

I definitely am. Being fat and out of shape means you're not giving your best effort, and therefore I don't look at those guys with the same reverence as I would the guys that clearly give their best.

Well, then you risk underrating them - like you did Tyson Fury.

Tyson Fury got in tip top shape though for his greatest accomplishments did he not?

I give him credit for that. If he's in top form, he's the man to beat in the division.

Ruiz could certainly be a better fighter if he were in shape. Honestly though I don't think he has the temperament as a fighter to ever be a major threat even if he were in better shape. He's just a real cautious, paint by numbers fighter that doesn't do anything spectacular for the most part. He just caught lightning in a bottle once.

That being said, his conditioning or lack thereof works against him for me in fights that are close like the Parker fight. Because in rounds where basically all else is even I'd give it to Parker just for being the guy that looks more like a Championship level fighter, and for obviously putting the work in to belong there.

[gilgamesh]

Fury has become a guy that while I'm still not a fan I've developed a respect for him certainly as I admit I did certainly underestimate him. I still don't think he's all that great of a boxer when he's backing up, and trying to be slick, but I appreciate that he has that as a weapon in his arsenal and he does multiple things well.

The one thing I'll never give him much credit for though is the Wlad win. Sometimes a fight is so good that there are no losers, that was a fight that was so bad there was no winner.

[margaret thatcher]

Well, then you risk underrating them - like you did Tyson Fury.

Because in rounds where basically all else is even I'd give it to Parker just for being the guy that looks more like a Championship level fighter, and for obviously putting the work in to belong there.

So basically you scored rounds for Parker because Andy was a fat ass?

[lazboy]

I'm not going to argue - my points are there and I maintain them.

I feel that Tabiti is gun shy. I don't see how him moving to heavy will solve his problem. If he fought Ruiz, Ruiz would literally eat him up by the middle rounds.

Now, if they had to fight on a desert island because of this Corno virus issue and say for whatever reason they were left alone on this desert island, with no food. After some days, Andy Ruiz would literally eat Tabiti.

[gilgamesh]

Because in rounds where basically all else is even I'd give it to Parker just for being the guy that looks more like a Championship level fighter, and for obviously putting the work in to belong there.

So basically you scored rounds for Parker because Andy was a fat ass?

Rounds that I couldn't separate 'em by anything else yeah.

If it was a round that I basically considered even, the non fatass got it.

[lazboy]

So basically you scored rounds for Parker because Andy was a fat ass?

Rounds that I couldn't separate 'em by anything else yeah.

If it was a round that I basically considered even, the non fatass got it.

Mate that is not impartial. You've already noted your justification about putting in full effort; it is presumptuous. Andy has worked on boxing his whole life. Just because he doesn't look the part doesn't mean he hasn't worked hard overall in his life compared to other fighters.

Yes he clearly didn't work hard enough for the Joshua rematch. That much is true. But he didn't just walk into the ring one day and have the skills he has without putting in blood, sweat and tears.

[gilgamesh]

Rounds that I couldn't separate 'em by anything else yeah.

If it was a round that I basically considered even, the non fatass got it.

Mate that is not impartial. You've already noted your justification about putting in full effort; it is presumptuous. Andy has worked on boxing his whole life. Just because he doesn't look the part doesn't mean he hasn't worked hard overall in his life compared to other fighters.

Yes he clearly didn't work hard enough for the Joshua rematch. That much is true. But he didn't just walk into the ring one day and have the skills he has without putting in blood, sweat and tears.

I consider it impartial, because I'm considering the work they put in before stepping into the ring, and literally only in rounds when there's absolutely nothing else to separate them.

If Ruiz won the round by even 1 more good blow, then he won the round, and he did win several against Parker. I just didn't think he did enough to win the fight.

It's really only because of the scoring system being the way it is that we basically don't actually just score some rounds even. The official judges almost never score an even round so I don't either, but that's what some rounds really are.

[margaret thatcher]

Lol then just score it even if you think it's even, you're allowed to call it 10-10 instead of turning it into a 'which man has the hotter body' competition

Plus how do you know who worked harder? Parker gained more weight for that fight than Ruiz did

[lazboy]

Mate that is not impartial. You've already noted your justification about putting in full effort; it is presumptuous. Andy has worked on boxing his whole life. Just because he doesn't look the part doesn't mean he hasn't worked hard overall in his life compared to other fighters.

Yes he clearly didn't work hard enough for the Joshua rematch. That much is true. But he didn't just walk into the ring one day and have the skills he has without putting in blood, sweat and tears.

I consider it impartial, because I'm considering the work they put in before stepping into the ring, and literally only in rounds when there's absolutely nothing else to separate them.

If Ruiz won the round by even 1 more good blow, then he won the round, and he did win several against Parker. I just didn't think he did enough to win the fight.

It's really only because of the scoring system being the way it is that we basically don't actually just score some rounds even. The official judges almost never score an even round so I don't either, but that's what some rounds really are.

It is not impartial. Rather than considering the rounds by themselves or the fight by itself, you are influenced by outside presumptions. Presumptions you don't have a full understanding of. You don't know how many hours of training Ruiz has put in. All you know is that he has eaten more calories than he has burnt. But you also don't know whether he feels better at the weight (mentally or physically) than he would at a lighter weight. It's too complicated and also unnecessary. You should be scoring the rounds as you see them.

Now I haven't seen the Ruiz Parker fight in some time, at the time I had Ruiz winning but it was a close fight.

What you are saying about scoring close rounds in terms of who is 'not the fattest' is completely unreasonable.

Maybe because of the flawed system of judging you brought up, where Judges generally don't score even rounds, is your reason but, as I said, I find it unreasonable.

You certainty don't have to follow me or listen to me, but because of this issue (scoring issue which we presently have), when I'm scoring round by round on this site, I score a lot of rounds even. I think that's fair. It's up to the fighter to separate the rounds not the judges. The fighters are not doing a good enough job to win a round if its not relatively clear.

[lazboy]

Lol then just score it even if you think it's even, you're allowed to call it 10-10 instead of turning it into a 'which man has the hotter body' competition

Plus how do you know who worked harder? Parker gained more weight for that fight than Ruiz did

You just said what I wanted to say faster than me and in two sentences.