By Ian S Palmer
American Heavyweight hopefuls Andy Ruiz and Tor Hamer will square off in a 10-round bout over in Macau, China on Saturday, November 23 on the undercard of the Manny Pacquiao vs Brandon Rios welterweight title contest. Boxing fans in North America can check out the action on HBO Pay Per View. Ruiz, who is trained by hall of famer Freddie Roach and was born in Mexico, is undefeated so far in his career while Hamer of New York has suffered a pair of defeats. This fight is for Ruiz’s WBO Inter-Continental Championship and the vacant NABF title.
The 24-year-old Ruiz will enter the ring with a perfect record of 24-0 along with 14 Kos to his name. his last bout took place in July when he scored a TKO over Joe Hanks in the fourth round to win his inter-continental crown. Ruiz isn’t exactly one of the new breed of huge heavyweights as he stands just 6-feet-2-inches tall and usually weight in at about 250 lbs, which certainly isn’t all muscle. However, he has good boxing skills and hand speed to go along with them.
The 30-year-old Hamer will walk to the ring with his record of 21-2 along with 14 Kos. He’s also 6-foot-2, but about 20 lbs lighter than Ruiz and in a bit better shape. He’s also a decent boxer, but had problems with the skills of Kevin Smith and the power of Vyacheslav Glazkov and was beaten by both of them. The loss to Glazkov came on national television last December when some fans believe he quit after four rounds.
Hamer was a pretty solid amateur though and a National Golden Gloves champion. He also made a name for himself over in Europe when he won the heavyweight Prizefighter tournament in Britain by beating fellow American Kevin Johnson in the final match. This is an important bout for Hamer as another loss would see him sink to journeyman status instead of a solid prospect. Ruiz could probably afford a loss, but he’s motivated to keep is perfect record intact to earn a world title shot somewhere down the line.
Hamer’s best chance here is to keep this contest a boxing match rather than slugging it out. Ruiz has pretty good power in his right hand and he’d be wise to keep his distance from it. Hamer couldn’t handle the power and pressure of Glazkov and Ruiz’s game plan could be similar. Ruiz should take the initiative and back Hamer up right from the opening bell and keep the pressure on him. An inside fight will benefit Ruiz and sooner or later he should be able to put together enough power shots in the second half of the fight to win it by a stoppage.
