Andy Ruiz and Jarrell Miller fight to 12-round majority draw
LOS ANGELES – Andy Ruiz started strong but faded late. Unfortunately, Jarrell Miller was not able to capitalize on it. Ruiz and Miller fought to a majority decision draw Saturday night before a partisan crowd at the BMO Stadium. One judge scored the bout 116-112 for Miller, while the other two judges scored the bout […]
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LOS ANGELES – Andy Ruiz started strong but faded late. Unfortunately, Jarrell Miller was not able to capitalize on it.
Ruiz and Miller fought to a majority decision draw Saturday night before a partisan crowd at the BMO Stadium. One judge scored the bout 116-112 for Miller, while the other two judges scored the bout 114-114.
Miller, who resides in Brooklyn, New York, goes to 26-1-2, 22 knockouts. Ruiz’s record now stands at 35-2-1, 22 KOs.
After a dull start, towards the end of Round 1, Ruiz landed a right-left combination to the head that stunned Miller. The bell sounded before Ruiz was able to follow up. In Round 2, Ruiz stuck out jabs to the body of Miller in an attempt to set up a cross to the head. With about a minute left in the round, Miller connected with a right cross of his own, snapping back the head of Ruiz.
Miller continued stalking Ruiz early on, hoping to land one punch, but he was cognizant of Ruiz’s hand speed, particularly with left-right combinations to the head.
Andy Ruiz had a lot of early rounds success vs. Jarrell Miller. Photo by Mark Robinson / Matchroom Boxing
Miller finally let his hands go more in Round 4. Miller stalked Ruiz, dialing in to throw and land right hands to the head. Ruiz countered by connecting straight and counter right hands to the body of Miller.
About midway through Round 5, Miller landed a series of left hooks to the body of Ruiz. Miller followed up with a hard left hook to the head that momentarily stunned Ruiz. Miller continued his onslaught, even landing a barrage of punches that shook Ruiz as the bell sounded to end the round.
Miller continued to focus his attack to the body, following up with a hook or cross to the head of Ruiz, who looked gassed. Miller walked Ruiz down, letting his hands go in spurts. While he was winning rounds during the second half of the fight, Miller was not as active as he could have been, considering how exhausted Ruiz was.
Ruiz had a decent start to Round 9, but Miller dominated the last half of the fight, backing Ruiz in a corner and battering him to the head. Miller continued to focus his attack to the body during Rounds 10 and 11, but he also landed to Ruiz’s head.
Jarrell Miller got the better of Andy Ruiz over the second half of their 12-round bout. Photo by Mark Robinson / Matchroom Boxing
Ruiz attempted to fight in spurts. The punches that did connect had little effect on Miller. Sensing he was down in the fight, Ruiz let his hands go. The second wind allowed him to throw and land looping right crosses to the head, but Miller dug to the body with left hooks to the body.
After the fight, Miller, who was stopped by Daniel Dubois in his previous fight on December 23, stated he thought he did enough to win.
“I know I did enough to win,” said Miller. “I threw more punches. I had him backing up the entire fight. It’s called effective aggression. I kept the pressure on and I hit him with the more effective punches. I had the fight in the bag.”
Ruiz admitted he hurt his right hand during the fight. Images of Ruiz’s right hand looked as though it looked fractured or dislocated.
“I haven’t fought in two years and I’d love to have a rematch here at the BMO Stadium,” said Ruiz. “I thought I did pretty good. My right hand started hurting me in the fifth round.”
Ruiz, who resides in Imperial, California, had not fought since September 2022 when he defeated Luis Ortiz by unanimous decision. The 34-year-old won the unified world heavyweight title in June 2019, stopping Anthony Joshua. Ironically, he took the Joshua fight on short notice after Miller had to withdraw from the fight after testing positive for banned substances.
Ruiz would lose the rematch against Joshua six months later.
Preliminary action
In a clash of unbeaten middleweights, Steven Nelson dropped Marcos Vazquez twice en route to a fifth round knockout victory. Nelson improved to 20-0, 16 KOs.
Nelson, who resides in Omaha, Nebraska and is a stablemate of Terence Crawford, focused his attack to the body of the southpaw Vazquez, who attempted to counter with hands and rights to the head.
Less than a minute left in round three, Nelson dropped Vazquez with a right hand to the head. Vazquez beat the count, but began to look worse for wear. His nose was bleeding, likely from a straight right to the head that connected earlier in the round. Vazquez’s punch output dropped with each passing minute. Late in the round, Vazquez was hurt by a combination thrown by Nelson that almost dropped him to the canvas.
In round five, Nelson backed Vazquez against the ropes and landed a left uppercut to the head, dropping Vazquez to one knee. Referee Ray Corona immediately waved the fight over at 50 seconds.
Vazquez, who resides in Tijuana, Mexico, falls to 20-1-1, 10 KOs
In the opening bout of the Riyadh Season card, welterweights Ziyad Almaayouf (5-0-1, 1 KOs) of Saudi Arabia and Poland’s Michal Bulik (6-7-1, 2 KOs) fought to a majority decision draw. One judge scored the bout 59-55 for Almaayouf, while the other two judges scored the bout 57-57.
Francisco A. Salazar has written for The Ring since October 2013 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (California) Star newspaper. He can be reached at santio89@yahoo.com
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The post Andy Ruiz and Jarrell Miller fight to 12-round majority draw appeared first on The Ring.