BoxRec

Prime vs prime, who wins?

To me, this one is really difficult to call. I'll go with The Duke on points.

Either the Duke wins on a decision or stops him late with his big left hook.

Tommy would KTFO Ruiz like Tua did, maybe just a bit later.

Ruiz in his prime would stop morrison late.

Ruiz gets off the canvas early, and smothers, holds, shoulders and hits on the break to a close but clear decision. If only Morrison's actual career was as good as his hypothetical Boxrec career.

Agree that Morrison was overrated by many, but we are talking about John Ruiz here.
Who did Ruiz ever won a "clear" decision over ?

Holy and Rahman.

ruiz gets hurts and dropped early, beaten up a beat till mid fight. comes back, and by the end has morrison in trouble and reeling

but morrison holds on and takes it a thin decision, 114-113ish

Seamus wrote: ↑06 Sep 2022, 21:52 Holy and Rahman.

Holyfield was shot by that point and it was still a close fight. Guess you count the Rahman fight but that seemed to have more to do with Rahman not showing up than anything.

Ruiz was a ghastly watch and almost more boring (if possible) out of the ring.
The Quiet Man moniker was a polite way of his own team saying: wholly unmarketable fighter but he's got some belts.

But I can see him being a right pain in the arse for the explosive Morrison - still nagging away after six rounds, not doing much at all but not remotely hurt either and with some energy left in the tank - and beginning to make the fight tight.

I'll go for a properly fecked-off and knackered Morrison winning it via the cards.
Bigger, cleaner punches and nailing some rounds but dragged into some messy stuff and losing a couple as well.

Quite admire Ruiz (grudgingly) because he could mess-up anyone and grind out a result.

He didn't mess up Tua . Or Roy Jones. his whole strategy was usually to punch and great. Make every round hard to score. Then he would have a 50-50 chance to win. Actually more since the judges were sometimes bought off by King.

If a guy had a lot of power (like Tua) or was a great boxer (like Jones), the punch and grab didn't work. Against most guys, it did.
If Morrison fought smart, he would have won.