HBO Pay-Per-View Boxing 

Ruiz vs. Oquendo

Byrd vs. Golota

April 17, 2004

Madison Square Garden

New York, New York

Just a week after the WBO established its heavyweight champion (Lamon Brewster), the WBA and the IBF

will have their heavyweight champions defend their titles in a HBO Pay-Per-View event. First,  the WBA

champion John "The Quite Man" Ruiz will be taking on the WBA 12th ranked heavyweight Fres

Oquendo. Then, the IBF heavyweight champion Chris "Rapid Fire" Byrd will defend his title against the

IBF 15th ranked Andrew Golota. Also, the WBA welterweight champion Jose Antonio Rivera (not to be

confused with the WBA undisputed world champion title held by Cory Spinks ) will take on former champion

and the WBA # 1 contender Ricardo Mayorga. And WBC cruiserweight champion Wayne Braithwaithe

will take on the WBC 14th ranked cruiserweight Louis Azille.

John Ruiz (39-5-1, 27 KO's) first fought for the WBA title back in August of 2000. He lost a 12 round

decision to Evader Holyfield (38-7-2, 25 KO's) for what was then the vacant WBA title. About eight months

later, he got a rematch with Holyfield and this time, won a 12 round unanimous decision to become the new

champion. Ruiz battled Holyfield one more time nine months later and that bout ended in a draw (with Ruiz

retaining the title). Ruiz then defended his title in July of 2002 against Kirk Johnson (34-2-1, 25 KO's). Ruiz

won that bout with an eight round disqualification of Johnson (for hitting Ruiz with low blows). In Ruiz's next

bout, he went up against the undisputed light heavyweight champion Roy Jones Jr. (49-1, 38 KO's). In what

can only be described as a lackluster performance, Ruiz lost a 12 round unanimous decision to Jones Jr. in

March of 2003. Ruiz then went on to battle Hasim Rahman (36-5-1, 29 KO's) for the interim WBA

heavyweight title in December of 2003. Ruiz won a 12 round unanimous decision over Rahman. Shortly

thereafter, Jones Jr. relinquished the WBA title and Ruiz shed the interim from his name and became the

official recognized champion.

Chris Byrd (37-2, 20 KO's) won his first 26 fights in a row. His first loss came in March of 1999 when he was

TKO'd in the fifth by Ike Ibeabuchi (20-0, 15 KO's). He then went on a five fight win streak culminating with

a 9th round TKO win over Vitali Klitschko (33-2, 31 KO's) and capturing the WBO heavyweight title 

(Klitschko could not continue after the ninth round due to a shoulder injury) in April of 2000. Byrd's next fight

was with Vitali's brother Wladimir in October of 2000. Byrd lost a 12 round unanimous decision to Wladimir

Klitschko (42-3, 39 KO's) and he also lost his title. Bryd then went on another win streak, this time

winning four in a row before meeting up with Evander Holyfield in December of 2002 for the vacant IBF

heavyweight title. Byrd came out on top and won a 12 round unanimous decision over Holyfield and was

once again a heavyweight champion. And this brings us to Byrd's last bout in which he successfully

defended his IBF title for the first time with a 12 round unanimous decision win over Fres Oquendo in

September of 2003.

Andrew Golota (38-4, 31 KO's), perhaps best known for being disqualified twice for low blows against

Riddick Bowe (40-1, 32 KO's) in 1996, has had only two fights since 2000. His last bout was a sixth round

TKO win over Terrence Lewis (31-14-1, 21 KO's) in November of 2003. His other bout was in August of

2003 when he won over Brian Nix (18-12, 3 KO's) via seventh round TKO. Golota's last fight in 2000 was

against Mike Tyson (50-4, 44 KO's) and Golota was stopped in three but the TKO was changed to a no

contest because Tyson tested positive for marijuana shortly thereafter. Golota's other two losses came at

the hands of Michael Grant (39-3, 30 KO's) via 10th round TKO in 1999 and Lennox Lewis (41-2-1, 32

KO's) via first round TKO in 1997. I really don't know how Golota merits a title shot but it should be

interesting.

I think Byrd will win - he  just needs to box and stay out of Golota's range, wear him down into the late

rounds and I think he can pull out a TKO win. Caution - if Byrd gets careless and underestimates Golota,

you can expect Golota to try to get to the inside to work the body. And I'm not trying to be mean but I expect

to see at least one low blow from Golota if he gets inside.

Jose Antonio Rivera (37-3-1, 24 KO's) won his first 23 bouts in a row before tasting defeat. His first loss

came in 1996 at the hands of Willy Wise (26-11-4, 7 KO's) via a 10 round split decision. Rivera then drew

with Troy Smith (6-9-3) in his next bout. Rivera then got hot and went on a seven fight win streak before

losing two decisions in a row - Pat Coleman (29-11, 20 KO's ) in 1999 & Robert Frazier (29-5-2, 15 KO's)

in 2000. Rivera then went back on a winning streak, taking the next seven, culminating in his last fight where

he won 12 round majority decision over Michel Trabant (39-1, 18 KO's) and won the vacant WBA

welterweight title (September of 2003). The WBA title was vacant because then champion Ricardo Mayorga

was upgraded to WBA undisputed world champion.

Ricardo Mayorga (26-4, 23 KO's) lost his WBA & WBC welterweight titles in his last bout to then IBF only

champion Cory Spinks (33-2, 10 KO's) in December of 2003. Mayorga captured the WBA welterweight title

in March of 2002 with a fifth round TKO of then champion Andrew Lewis (22-2-1, 20 KO's). Mayorga's next

bout was a unification title bout with the WBC champion Vernon Forrest (35-2, 26 KO's) in January of 2003.

Mayorga won by third round TKO over Forrest. In the rematch about six months later, Mayorga once again

defeated Forrest, this time by a 12 round majority decision. Mayorga then went onto face Spinks.

Mayorga will need to do a lot better job than what he did with Spinks - especially avoiding the point penalties

for hitting after the bell and holding. Can he really hurt Rivera? All of Rivera's losses have come by decision.

I think so - Mayorga by seventh round TKO.

And finally,  WBC cruiserweight champion Wayne Braithwaithe (20-0, 17 KO's) has KO'd or TKO'd his last

15 opponents in a row including his last bout in December of 2003 - a first round TKO win over Luis

Andres Pineda (18-4, 16 KO's). Braithwaithe captured the vacant WBC title three fights ago in October of

2002 with a 10th round TKO win over Vincenzo Cantatore (29-3, 27 KO's).

For Louis Azille (18-2-2, 15 KO's) , this will be a chance to avenge his November, 2001 loss to Braithwaithe

via third round TKO. After his loss to Braithwaithe, Azille went on a two fight win streak before losing his last

bout in October of 2003 via 12 round split decision to Kelvin Davis (20-2-1, 15 KO's). 

Braithwaithe beat Azille in three in 2001 and will do it again in 2004.

SN

WBA Heavyweight Title Bout - (12 Rds)

Champ John Ruiz (39-5-1, 27 KO's) vs. Fres Oquendo (24-2, 15 KO's)

IBF Heavyweight Title Bout - (12 Rds)

Champ Chris Byrd (37-2, 20 KO's) vs. Andrew Golota (38-4, 31 KO's)

WBA Welterweight Title Bout ??? - (12 Rds)

Champ Jose Antonio Rivera (37-3-1, 24 KO's) vs. Ricardo Mayorga (26-4, 23 KO's)

WBC Cruiserweight Title Bout - (12 Rds)

Champ Wayne Braithwaithe (20-0, 17 KO's) vs. Louis Azille (18-2-2, 15 KO's)

Card subject to change

(4/12/04) 

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