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Just watched Ruiz vs. Chagaev, which was fairly decent by his standards.
I always had Ruiz as the real WBA champ (believing he beat Valuev), but last night even though he did better on the cards (one judge giving it to him 115-114, making it a SD loss) he was definitely outpointed.
I had John edging all of the last four rounds as Chagaev tired and should, ironically, have had a point taken for excessive holding. Despite this, my card still had Chagaev the 115-113 winner, and it could have been wider.
John - his face, as always, oddly reminiscent of a gorilla's vagina - didn't hold as much as usual, but showed he'd learned something from that Holyfield trilogy by introducing Chagaev to his head as often as possible.
It was a hard-fought bout, so Chagaev's severe drop off in workrate towards the end perhaps shouldn't be counted too harshly against him, and let's not forget that in the modern age John Ruiz IS a legitimate top ten heavyweight, and still is.
Chagaev looks unlikely to possess any skill that would get him past Valuev (for which this was the eliminator) but could perhaps take the likes of Maskaev should he be given the opportunity.
I always had Ruiz as the real WBA champ (believing he beat Valuev), but last night even though he did better on the cards (one judge giving it to him 115-114, making it a SD loss) he was definitely outpointed.
I had John edging all of the last four rounds as Chagaev tired and should, ironically, have had a point taken for excessive holding. Despite this, my card still had Chagaev the 115-113 winner, and it could have been wider.
John - his face, as always, oddly reminiscent of a gorilla's vagina - didn't hold as much as usual, but showed he'd learned something from that Holyfield trilogy by introducing Chagaev to his head as often as possible.
It was a hard-fought bout, so Chagaev's severe drop off in workrate towards the end perhaps shouldn't be counted too harshly against him, and let's not forget that in the modern age John Ruiz IS a legitimate top ten heavyweight, and still is.
Chagaev looks unlikely to possess any skill that would get him past Valuev (for which this was the eliminator) but could perhaps take the likes of Maskaev should he be given the opportunity.
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