Rant Time.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are implicitly those of the author and do not reflect those of saddoboxing.com in general.

Ladies and gentlemen, introducing the artist formerly known as the origami ornament, the one, the only (thank God) WBA escapology champion of the world John Ruiz! I have studied the noble art for many years and without further ado, I am quite willing to declare John Ruiz as boxing’s premier

proponent of passive-aggressive pugilism. The basis for my conclusion lies in the evidence of Ruiz’s double championship reign in which he has participated in no less than seven illegitimate world title fights not including his waltz with Hasim Rahman for the WBA’s interim title last year. In the final act of one of boxing’s more forgettable trilogies, Ruiz struggled to a draw to retain his title against an Evander Holyfield fighting at least five years past his prime. Ruiz then conspired with Nova Scotia’s Kirk Johnson to provide another stunning debacle for heavyweight history. What was incredible about Ruiz’s victory was not that he achieved it with a greatly authoritative display, but that it granted him entry to the rather exclusive historical fraternity of fighters that have won world title fights on a foul. Ruiz’s encounter against Rahman and his most recent performance against Andrew Golota reaffirm him as the master of winning fights without actually beating anyone.

“Stone’ Cold Crazy.

If I did not know any better, I would say that Norman “Stoney’ Stone’s repeatedly distasteful misdemeanors are legitimate proof of what mental afflictions can befall a person who has surrounded himself with John Ruiz for too long. Stone admitted to have temporarily taken leave of his senses while vehemently berating referee Randy Neumann on Saturday night on more than one occasion. Obviously, Stone has not learned his lesson since being put to sleep by Roy Jones’s trainer Alton Merkerson and subsequently carried out of the Ruiz-Jones press conference on a stretcher. In a perfect world, it might be the boiling passion of Stone fighting in the ring while the “quiet man’ stayed in the corner. But an ideal world this most certainly is not, and in boxing, perhaps no more poignant evidence of this exists in the fact that John Ruiz and Norman Stone are increasingly permanent fixtures of the heavyweight scene.

Boxing On Ice.

I understand that Canada is in mourning over the ice hockey lockout, but my response and I would wager that of many other dedicated boxing fans in this country is, “Welcome to my world.” Frankly, Canadian boxing coverage is not good and sympathy is difficult to express for hockey fanatics when boxing is so poorly attended to in this country. I freely admit that I have not been caught by the hockey bug; I cannot seem to be enthusiastic about a bunch of predominantly toothless Russians skating around with sticks after a small disc. Highlight footage of hockey games tends to contain a greater percentage of the senseless muggings into the ironically protective covering on the perimeter of the ice that constantly occur instead of the actual goals scored. I suppose I do not understand the tradition of the game, I am not emotionally involved and hockey is not a part of my fabric in the way that football and boxing are ingrained into my psyche. That being said, Canadians know their boxing and it is odd to see them flagrantly disregard it so often.

Bernard Hopkins and Oscar de la Hoya fought on the same bill in June of this year at the same time as a hockey game was winding itself down. Now, in the sizable establishment I frequent to watch the fights, (because you cannot seriously rely on TSN to bringyou decent coverage) there were no less than six large screens and at least a dozen more monitors displaying the hockey to the modest crowd assembled. Meanwhile, some Canadian boxing fans and I had to settle for watching the undisputed middleweight championship of the world contested on a tiny screen with no sound. TSN first screened the monumental Trinidad-Mayorga fight no less than a month after it had happened. The network has frequently advertised hours of boxing programs only to replace them for no apparent reason with poker games and woodcutting tournaments. Lots of money, time and effort is currently being spent in Canada through commercial attempts to appeal to the relevant parties to end the hockey lockout whereas I’d be surprised to find even a pittance being considered for providing decent boxing coverage.

Jim Cawkwell can be reached at jam2lis@sprint.ca