Ruiz won by scores of 113-112, 114-111 and 114-111. Taking three points from Ortiz due to knockdowns, that would mean two judges had it even in rounds, 6-6, and one judge had Ortiz win seven rounds to Ruiz’s five. Bad Left Hook also scored it 113-112 for Ruiz on our unofficial card. It was a fight with bursts of action, especially in the second round, where Ruiz scored two of his knockdowns. It should be noted that the second was a questionable decision by referee Thomas Taylor, and had it not been counted, Ruiz would have won, but on a split decision, both of his cards being by a single point. . We’d probably be talking a little more about controversy in that case. But the 43-year-old Ortiz (33-3, 28 KOs) never really put a stamp on this fight. Most rounds seemed to go whichever way Andy Ruiz went at them. If he dropped back too much, it was easy to score them for Ortiz, whose jabs arguably carried rounds where, frankly, nothing much happened. And it wasn’t hard to find six or seven of them for the Cuban. Ruiz (35-2, 22 KOs) faced a southpaw for the first time as a pro, and it certainly showed, including the former titleholder usually circling the “wrong” way, in Ortiz’s hand. It never completely bit him, however, as Ortiz no longer has the legs to surprise opponents other than timing them, and Ruiz was able to take advantage of that and also use his own quickness and hand speed to pin down Ortiz quite often, which Ortiz couldn’t do much of because he’s just slow right now. It wasn’t the all-star performance you’d like to see from Ruiz, but a lot of it was very smart and it gets the job done. He won’t face many fighters like Ortiz, and he knew Ortiz was dangerous with his power and timing if he gave him too many chances. We almost saw it late in the second round when Ortiz broke him and Ruiz clearly felt it. The fight was never really the same from there, except for a good rush in the seventh round when Ruiz dropped Ortiz for the third time. “I thought I did a pretty good job boxing him out,” Ruiz said. “It was pretty tough, but the ability I have, to fight back and hook him and take him down, was a blessing.” Ruiz said he wants to become more active. “I don’t want to wait that long to compete. I want to compete at least three or four times again. I’m ready, man, I’m hungry, I want to be champion again.” Deontay Wilder, who returns on Oct. 15 against Robert Helenius, and had about 20 percent of the entire show dedicated to him tonight, was in attendance and Ruiz said he would welcome it as a next fight as well: “Me and him are in the same organization, Al Haymon can make this fight happen. Let’s do it, let’s get on with it.” “Whoever said ‘King Kong’ is old, I gave you a war today. I felt like I put up a great fight tonight,” Ortiz said through an interpreter, adding that he would like a rematch. “You think I’m done? You saw war here tonight. Do people think ‘King Kong’ is over?”
