To have been in the ring with Roy Jones Jr, David Haye and Evander Holyfield is to have faced some of the best boxers of the last 40 years.
Jones Jr is a generational great who holds the rare record of being a middleweight world champion and winning belts all the way up to the banner division of heavyweight. That has forever etched his name in the history books, which is something Haye also managed.
The Brit was at one time the best cruiserweight on the planet having unified three of the four major world titles in 2008, and also picking up the Ring magazine and lineal title. The following year he moved up to heavyweight and beat the gigantic Russian Nikolai Valuev to claim the WBA title.
He was somewhat following in the footsteps of the legendary Holyfield who achieved something similar, as has Oleksandr Usyk more recently.
Holyfield was the undisputed cruiserweight king back in the three belt era and moved up to heavyweight to also clear out that division, eventually becoming a four-time world heavyweight champion by 2000.
John Ruiz faced all of those fighters at some point or another, and though he lost to Holyfield the first time, he won the rematch to become the WBA champion, only to then lose it on points to Jones Jr.
In April 2020, he took on Haye in England and was stopped inside nine rounds, which was the final fight of his career.
Speaking to The Ring Magazine, Ruiz was asked to name the hardest hitter he ever faced and he actually went with David Tua.
“He hit like a mule. Sometimes things happen and I admit he really got me.”
The Samoan-New Zealand heavyweight is regarded as one of the hardest punchers to have never won a world title. He scored 16 knockout wins in the first round, including Ruiz and the first southpaw heavyweight champion Michael Moorer.
