Columnist Ron Kantowski: Fight fans cry foul, but why?

Monday, Aug. 14, 2000 | 10:29 a.m.

Ron Kantowski's column usually appears Thursday. His notes column appears Tuesday. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or 259-4088. Regular columnist Dean Juipe has the day off.

By the time I arrived at the office Sunday morning, I already had received a batch of e-mails that was more hostile than the failed takeover that Oklahoma group had planned for Southwest Gas.

The gist of each and every one was that plucky John Ruiz either was robbed or served as the judges' Phillips head screw in a sluggish fight with Evander Holyfield for the vacant WBA heavyweight title at the Paris hotel-casino Saturday night.

Now there's an original thought.

The last time boxing fans were so outraged by a decision was ... well, the last time one of these sucker productions -- er, pay-per-view fights -- went to the scorecards.

The e-mailers would have you believe this was the biggest heist on the Strip since Danny Ocean got his crew together on New Year's Eve back in the Rat Pack days.

But the reality is that the fight went just about as Sun boxing writer Dean Juipe predicted it would in his Friday column. With Father Time having trapped Holyfield on the ropes, Juipe wrote that "Ruiz is in a fortuitous position and has enough going for him to capitalize. And the possibility of that happening is real enough that this is not a fight worth betting the farm on.

"Expect this fight to go its full 12 rounds."

Not to belittle his laudable effort, but Ruiz could have made a close fight even more compelling had he been able to muster an attack in the 12th and deciding round when Holyfield knocked him down -- or at least made Ruiz "slip" (in the estimation of referee Richard Steele) to the canvas by smashing a left hook across the bridge of Ruiz's nose.

Afterward, Ruiz predictably said the decision was "like a robbery without a gun." He said it in good conscience for a guy who lasted all of 19 seconds against David Tua, yet was paid rather handsomely ($1.1 mil.) Saturday night.

That's what I would call robbery without a gun. You'd have to go back to John Dillinger breaking out of an Indiana prison by carving a pistol out of a bar of Ivory to top the way Ruiz got over in these contract negotiations.

The truth is that losing a competitive decision to Holyfield did not hurt Ruiz one iota. He earned the respect of boxing fans and most likely positioned himself for at least one more marginally prominent fight.

Sure, as WBA champion he might have increased his bargaining power. And in a normal situation, Ruiz could have been a nuisance in a convoluted process to unify the heavyweight title. But the reason Ruiz was able to put his best foot forward against Holyfield is that Lennox Lewis (the real champ) thought so little of the Massachusetts journeyman that he willingly relinquished the WBA belt, rather than bore himself training for a mandatory against the WBA's No. 1 (?!) contender.

The close decision aside, nothing really changes as a result of it. Holyfield's still fading, but remains a box office draw by default. Ruiz did as well as could be expected.

So save the venomous e-mails and inflammatory letters-to-the-editor for a few days. After all, Bob Arum is going before the Nevada State Athletic Commission to have his wrist slapped in the IBF bribery scam on Wednesday.