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By Mark Eisner: Former unified heavyweight champion Andy Ruiz Jr. (35-2, 22 KOs) pulled out a 12 round unanimous decision win over Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz (33-3, 28 KOs) in their WBC title eliminator on Sunday night at the Crypto Arena in Los Angeles.

Ruiz dropped the 43-year-old Ortiz three times, knocking him down twice in the second and once more in the seventh. However, aside from those rounds, Ruiz was outboxed by Ortiz pretty much in every other round except for the 11th.

This writer had Ortiz nine of the twelve rounds of the fight. The knockdowns are what saved Ruiz because, without them, he clearly would have lost tonight.

The scores were 114-111, 113-112, and 114-111. With the win, Ruiz Jr is now the WBC mandatory for champion Tyson Fury.

Undercard results:

• Former world lightweight title challenger Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz (24-2-1, 17KO) made easy work of Eduardo Ramirez (27-3-3, 12KO), stopping him in the second round of a WBC lightweight title eliminator. In round two, the 24-year-old Pitbull Cruz dropped Ramirez with a left hook in the second round. Ramirez then got up and was quickly dropped for a second time after getting hurt by another big left hook followed by a right hand. The bout was stopped at 2:27 of the second round. With the win, Cruz is the mandatory for WBC lightweight champion Devin Haney. That’s not the guy that Cruz is expected to face, however, as he wants Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis, and the feelings appear to be mutual.
• In another surprise result on the card, Former three-division world champion Abner Mares (31-3-2, 15 KO’s) was forced to settle for a 10 round majority draw against Miguel Flores (25-4-1, 12 KO’s). The 37-year-old Mares, who was returning to the ring after a four-year layoff, fought well in the first half of the contest. However, in the second part of the fight, Mares gassed out and took a lot of punishment from Flores down the stretch. The scores were 96-94 for Mares, and 95-95, and 95-95. Boxing News 24 had Flores ending it 96-94. Unfortunately, for Mares, the draw likely prevented him from calling out Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis afterward. It’s believed that if Mares had won, he would have called out Tank and could have been his next opponent if he failed to set up a fight with Ryan Garcia.
• In a surprise upset, lightweight Edwin De Los Santos (15-1, 14 KO’s) scored a third round knockout over heavily favored Jose ‘El Rayo’ Valenzuela (12-1, 8 KOs). In the second round, both De Los Santos and Valenzuela were down from heavy shots. Valenzuela dropped De Los Santos for the first knockdown. Later in the round, De Los Santos sent Valenzeula down. The way Valenzeula looked at the end of the second round, he would have needed a miracle to recover in between rounds. Sure enough, De Los Santos knocked Valenzuela down in the third round. Although Valenzuela got back to his feet, he was battered by De Los Santos, prompting the referee to step in and halt the contest. The time of the stoppage was 1:08 of round three.
• Super bantamweight Ra’eese Aleem (20-0, 12 KO’s) defeated Mike Plania (26-2, 13 KO’s) by a one-sided 10 round unanimous decision. The scores were 100-89, 100-89, and 100-89. Aleem dropped Plania in the second round.
• Former IBF heavyweight champion Charles Martin (29-3-1, 26 KOs) got back to his winning ways, stopping Devin Vargas (22-8, 9 KOs) in the fourth round. The 6’5″ Martin was pounding Vargas at will in the fourth round when the referee Jerry Cantu opted to pull the plug on the fight. The time of the stoppage was at 1:59 of the fourth round.
• Undefeated super bantamweight Anthony Garnica (10-0-1, 5 KOs) defeated Juan Lopez (17-11, 7KO) by a six round majority decision. The scores were 59-55, 59-55, and 57-57 in favor of Garnica.

Preview:

Andy Ruiz weighed in at 268 lbs on Friday, and he knows that he cannot afford to lose this fight against Ortiz (33-2, 28 KOs) if he wants to keep his dream alive of becoming a two-time heavyweight champion.

Both Ruiz Jr and Ortiz are in a position where they can’t afford to lose the fight tonight if they want a world title shot. For the 43-year-old Ortiz, his position is direr because he’s near the end of his career.

But even Ruiz can ill afford to lose because he only fights once a year, and at this rate, it could take him five or six years to come back from another loss.

It would obviously help if the former IBF/WBA/WBO champion Ruiz was more active, but with a net worth of $10 million, he doesn’t have the same hunger that normal fighters have.

That’s why it’s likely we won’t see Ruiz back in the ring for 18 months after tonight’s fight because he’s enjoying the fruits of his labor.

‘The Destroyer’ Ruiz Jr had those two fights with Anthony Joshua, splitting a pair, and he made a lot of money from them. From there, Ruiz was elevated to pay-per-view status, even for his fights against lesser opposition.

Ruiz’s last fight against 40-year-old past his best Chris Arreola was shown on FOX Sports pay-per-view, and his match tonight against Ortiz will be on PPV as well.

For some, it’s hard for them to wrap their heads around an average heavyweight like Ruiz being a PPV fighter, but it goes to show you what happens when you get lucky with a shock knockout against a careless fighter like Joshua.

In the co-feature bout, lightweight Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz will fight Eduardo Ramirez.  Also on the card is former world champion Abner Mares taking on Miguel Flores, and Jose Valenzuela battling Edward De Los Santos.

Andy Ruiz Jr and Luis Ortiz meet in an important WBC heavyweight title eliminator tonight on FOX Sports PPV at the Crypto Arena in Los Angeles, California. The fight card begins at 7:00 p.m. ET.

The former unified champion Ruiz (34-2, 22 KOs) has done a good job of whipping himself into top shape for this fight.