Quote Originally Posted by mikeeod View Post
I wonder if he will go the way of Buster Douglas/Lamon Brewster/Jesse Furguson or Ray Mercer/Riddick Bowe/Roberto Duran. Douglas/Brewster/Furguson won their big fights, ate themselves out of shape losing rematches, and never ascended to that level again. Mercer/Bowe/Duran made a career out of fluctuating between coming to fight in great shape and being grossly out of shape and mailing in their training. Now that I think about it, James Toney fits into that camp as well.

What will hurt Ruiz is that now he will be avoided and worse- fans won’t be behind him anymore. If he comes back on great shape and loses a good fight, he can recover with the fans (if he even loses anything). The way he came in, he has zero sympathy.
Zero sympathy, and zero credibility. Eddie Mustafa Muhammad did something similar I believe.