TOUGH FOE FOR BOOM-BOOM
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 15 Oct 2008
Rey ?Boom Boom? Bautista?s next foe is tough and the WBO No. 1 ranked Filipino is expected to have his hands full against Heriberto ?Cuate? Ruiz, the 31 year old Mexican who stands 5?7? and has fought some of the best bantamweights in recent years.
Ruiz has a record of 39-7-2 with 23 knockouts but his losses have been against such tremendous fighters as former IBF world bantamweight champions Rafael Marquez, former WBA flyweight champion Eric Morel and former IBF flyweight champion Irene Pacheco among others.
Ruiz suffered his first defeat of his career in a twelve round decision to Mauricio Pastrana, a former IBF junior flyweight champion and WBA flyweight champion in Kansas City, Missouri on August 20, 2000.
A report on that fight in the Las Vegas Review Journal said Ruiz started fast but wore down in the later rounds because of a vicious body attack by Pastrana enabling Pastrana to win a unanimous but fairly close decision on the scorecards of two of the three judges.
Prior to his title fight against Rafael Marquez, brother of world lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez in 2004, the fight was described as ?a dangerous fight for Marquez.?
Ruiz was referred to as ?a guy who?s not a marquee name but a guy who is a legitimate threat to take his (Marquez) crown. Ruiz is a guy who, like Marquez, can be considered a big bantamweight at 5?6? and is on a strong run of victories.?
The report went on to state that since losing to spoiler Oscar Andrade in 2002, Ruiz had reeled off wins against Clarence Vinson, Cristobal Cruz, Carlos Contreras and Ricardo Vargas. "Its clear" said the story, that Ruiz is the best bantamweight that Marquez has faced in defending his crown? at that time in Marquez' career.
Marquez himself said Ruiz seemed to be ?a good boxer, a decent puncher and probably has more skills than the other guys I?ve faced so far.?
In his last fight Ruiz dropped a twelve round unanimous decision to Morel in a WBO Intercontinental bantamweight title fight on August 30 this year but prior to that he scored a third round TKO over Ernesto Rivera in a WBC Fecombox title fight in which Ruiz dropped Rivera once in round one and twice in round three.
Ruiz won the vacant WBC Fecombox title with a unanimous twelve round decision over Francisco Garcia on February 22.
Bautista who has been waiting to find out who his opponent would be has been slowly stepping up preparations for his major test on the undercard of the Paul Malignaggi ? Ricky ?The Hitman? Hatton IBO light welterweight title fight on November 22 at the MGM Grand to be telecast by the giant broadcast network ABS-CBN on its pre-eminent Channel 2.
Since his stunning first round KO at the hands of the menacing Daniel Ponce De Leon on August 11 last year, Bautista?s handlers, led by the respected father-and-son tandem of Tony and Michael Aldeguer, have worked on restoring his confidence.
Bautista has responded positively with a hard-fought twelve round decision over Antonio Meza of Mexico on December 2 last year and then stepping up with a second round KO of Genaro Camargo on April 6 this year and followed this up with a second round TKO over Eden Marquez last August 30.
The 22 year old Bautista who has a record of 26-1 with 19 knockouts knows the upcoming battle with Ruiz could be a career-defining fight and is ready to give it his best shot.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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