End of the road for Ruiz

NEW YORK -- Boxing finally got what it has long wanted. It finally got rid of John Ruiz.

Less than an hour after he lost to James Toney, by a wide margin, a fight that appeared arguably closer, the two-time World Boxing Association heavyweight champion announced he was finished with a sport he has grown to hate. "I always treated everybody with respect, but they didn't treat me the same way," Ruiz said in his locker room at Madison Square Garden as he announced he was retiring from boxing at the age of 33. "It hurts me to walk away like this. I grew up in boxing. It's sad for me to put it this way, but boxing was the sport I loved.

"Now it's the sport I hate."

The final straw for Ruiz was not the lopsided decision awarded to Toney last night. The last straw came several hours earlier, when he was approached by an inspector from the New York State Athletic Commission who ordered him to shave the beard he has worn through most of his professional career.

Stunned, Ruiz began to protest and his volatile manager, Norman Stone, leaped to his defense and a shouting match ensued. Stone pointed out Ruiz had worn the same beard in the same building with the same officials having jurisdiction six months ago and no one said a word about it.

What had changed?

"It dawned on me they were going to do everything they could to get me out of the sport tonight," Ruiz said. "I knew right then this was the night they were going to take it away from me.

"I think they decided a long time ago they didn't want me in the sport. They never wanted me to beat [Evander] Holyfield. They never thought I'd beat Holyfield. They never thought I'd beat [Hasim] Rahman or [Andrew] Golota or those other guys.

"I did all I could to lift up the sport of boxing. I extended my hand to everybody. I didn't say anything bad about anybody and all they did was say bad about me. I'm a nice guy. They want [expletives] up there. Now they got one. I'm finished. I've been fed up with what goes on in boxing for a while."

Toney became only the third former middleweight champion in history to win the heavyweight title. In a real oddity, Ruiz was on the losing end of two of those decisions, first dropping his title to Roy Jones Jr. two years ago, winning it back by beating Rahman easily, and last night losing it again to Toney. The only other middleweight to win the heavyweight title was Bob Fitzsimmons in 1897.

Neither man seemed much inclined to push himself or take even the slightest of risks, although Toney did land effective righthand counters on numerous occasions while Ruiz did most of his work with his jab and a right hand to the body. The pace could not have been slower, but judges Don Ackerman, Tom Schreck, and Guy Jutras somehow all saw what appeared to be a one-sided fight. Ackerman and Schreck both scored it 116-111, while Jutras had it 115-112. Incredibly, all three judges gave the final round to Toney when he did not appear to land five punches. The Globe card had Ruiz winning, 115-114, but in reality, no one deserved to have his hand raised.

"He's a tough guy to fight," Ruiz said before leaving the ring. "He moves around a lot. I connected a lot. I finished stronger. I felt I won the fight."

Toney, who upped his record to 69-4-2 with arguably the biggest win of his career, was ungracious and unkind after the decision was announced.

"I didn't expect much from John because he's an average fighter," Toney said. "John Ruiz is stupid. He can't change his style. He only knows how to fight one way."

Last night, that was without much fire, flames he later claimed were banked when he was first harassed about his beard. Although Ruiz at times used his jab with moderate success and a right to the body early that seemed to find a home along Toney's rib cage, he seldom chose to press the action. The one time he seemed to hurt Toney with a right hand off a combination, he was not willing to risk going for the kill.

Toney landed some stinging righthand counters over Ruiz's often drooping left, but he, too, fought without passion or verve. He seemed willing to allow himself to be held while attacking only sporadically.

A mistake by referee Steve Smoger proved critical in Round 7 when he ruled Ruiz had been knocked down when replays clearly showed he was pushed to the floor after the challenger had stepped on his right foot with his left. The only punch Toney threw during that sequence was a glancing blow near the top of Ruiz's scalp and it had nothing to do with the "knockdown," which resulted from Toney's forearm pushing an offbalance Ruiz down after he'd stepped on his foot.

The champion rose and complained but Smoger ignored his pleadings and all three judges awarded Toney a 10-8 round he did not deserve.

The first clinch came barely five seconds into the first round -- and that pretty much was a preview of the pace. The second round was more of the same with Ruiz getting slightly the better of it when he landed a four-punch combination late.

Ruiz was dominant in Round 3, throwing several combinations off his jab that landed solidly into the challenger's pudgy sides. Ruiz began snapping his jab more with his right hand behind it as Toney would turn to the side to try and slip the jab.

Toney came back in the fourth round and landed two solid counter rights that seemed to carry the moment, but Ruiz's jab and rights to the body seemed to counter the challenger's work. But the fight was approaching the halfway point with a pattern evolving in which Ruiz was controlling the majority of the action with his jab and right to the body while Toney was scoring, on the few occasions when he threw, with a righthand counter over the champion's sometime low-slung left.

While Toney was incorrectly awarded the knockdown seconds into Round 7 by Smoger, he tried the same tactic in the next round. But this time when he pushed Ruiz down, Smoger quickly saw it for what it was -- but the damage had been done.

Little else transpired until the 10th round when Toney started fast. But with a minute to go, he was stunned by a right hand. Ruiz landed two left hands and a right to the body behind it but when Toney retreated to the ropes, Ruiz did nothing but lean on him as the crowd booed lustily, although it was difficult to tell who they were addressing. . . .
In the best fight of the night, Vicente Mosquera got off the floor in the third round to batter and beat on WBA super featherweight champion Yodsanan Nanthachai, dropping him three times on his way to a one-sided, unanimous 12-round decision.

Mosquera seemed in deep trouble early but he came back to twice put the Thai champion on the ropes, having him in the most serious trouble late in the 11th round when he drove him across the ring and to the floor, his head bouncing off the bottom rope.

Mosquera snapped a streak in which Nanthachai had gone unbeaten in 37 fights over the past 11 years.

Earlier in the evening: International Boxing Federation junior bantamweight champion Luis Perez (23-1, 15 KOs) stopped No. 1 contender Luis Bolano (38-3) at 2:46 of the sixth round; DaVarryl Williamson (22-3, 18 KOs) derailed Derrick Jefferson (28-4), knocking him cold at 2:41 of the second round; Larry Donald (42-3-3) sleepwalked his way to a majority draw against Ray Austin (22-3-3); Evans Ashira (24-1) won a lopsided unanimous decision over Quinton Smith (21-1); and Israel Garcia (19-1) won a unanimous six-round decision over Andre Oliynk (10-3).