Don King Productions in association with Goossen Tutor Promotions has been able to get together and make a fight that is worth seeing. You know it is going to be a good fight when you have HBO televising the fight and it is going to be at the Mecca of boxing, Madison Square Garden. John Ruiz vs. James Toney should be a slugfest. This fight is going to be a lot different then the last fight Ruiz had against another fighter trying to make history, Roy Jones, JR. In that fight, Ruiz had to chase a faster smaller fighter who had some pop even at the heavyweight division. Yes, Ruiz lost that fight along with his WBA World title and was part of history all in the same night. In case you are not from this planet Roy Jones, JR. became the second fighter in history to win a World title in the middleweight division and eventually move up and capture a World title in the heavyweight division. The only fighter who was able to do that prior to RJJ was a fighter by the name of Bob Fitzsimmons and this was back in 1891 to be exact.
James "Lights out" Toney as he calls himself is trying to become only the third fighter in history to accomplish that feat. You got to love history. I know I do and that is why this fight is going to be great. Not to mention the fact that these fighters do not like each other. Also Toney is not a mover like Jones he likes to bang and use the angles to slip punches, but he will be a standing target for the bigger and stronger Ruiz. I do not know about you, but I can't wait until April 30th to see what happens.
Let's take a quick trip down memory lane to see how this fight was able to be made.
After Ruiz lost to Roy Jones, JR. on March 1st 2003, he was able to get a fight against Hasim Rahman for the WBA interim title and the winner was to face RJJ. Well, Ruiz won that fight with a 12 round unanimous decision and RJJ decided to move back down to the light heavyweight division and fight Antonio Tarver for Tarver's WBC and IBO light heavyweight titles, in which Jones won a hard fought decision which had him all, but drained from dropping the weight. Therefore making the Interim Champion Ruiz the new WBA champion and a two time champion to boot. Ruiz defended his WBA title two more times in 2004, with a TKO victory against Fres Oquendo in April and an unanimous decision against Andrew Golota in November. This activity should keep him sharp for the war that should come against Toney on April 30th.
James Toney came by a different route. He first won the IBF Middleweight title in May of 1991 with a TKO victory in the 11th round against Michael "Second to" Nunn. After successfully defending his middleweight title six times, Toney decided it was time to move up to the super middleweight division and faced then IBF Super Middleweight Champion Iran "The Blade" Barkley. Toney won with an impressive 10th round TKO victory. Toney defended his super middleweight tile three times to set up the much anticipated match up between him and Roy Jones, JR back in 1994. Toney lost to RJJ and decided to move up to the light heavyweight division and faced a small, but relentless 14-0 Montell Griffin, losing a close majority decision.
At this point in time many of the boxing experts started to question if Toney would ever back the hunger he once had? Toney managed to reel off nine straight victories mostly against B level competition and was able to secure a rematch with Montell Griffin who was 25-0 at the time. This time Griffin was able to win more easily pulling out an unanimous decision. Toney later was upset by Drake Thadzi and lost a majority decision to a fighter who was 28-8 at the time and at the end of his career.
Now at this point in time all the boxing experts were counting Toney out of any possibility for big fights let alone a fight to make history. Toney must have done a lot of soul searching and found out that he was not done yet. Toney moved up to another weight class this time it was the Cruiserweight division to fight in and was able to reel off a string of eleven straight victories before facing then IBF Cruiserweight champion Vissaliy Jirov who was 31-0 at the time and favored to beat Toney. This turned out to be "Fight of the Year" and then some with Toney winning an unanimous decision. Now a three time world champion Toney decided he would vacate his title and move up to the Heavyweight division. Toney's had two victories in the heavyweight division with one coming against Evander Holyfield and the other against up and coming Rydell Booker who was 22-0 at the time. Most boxing experts see this move as Toney's way to capitalize at the end of his career and try to cash in and if that is the case who can blame him, but lets not forget that on April 30th Ruiz is defending his WBA heavyweight title against another former middleweight champion trying to make history.
