Growing up with ten brothers and sisters in a three-bed house in Los Angeles, a young Adelaida Ruiz watched on as her father worked all the hours he could whilst her mother took care of everyone. It quickly made her appreciate and understand how important family is.
(Photo credit: Mario Serrano)
When two of her brothers started boxing at seven, she and one of her sisters found themselves regularly in the gym. Wanting to embrace pugilism herself, Ruiz boxed during the majority of her teenage years.
But then, she fell pregnant and had to walk away.
“At 19, I completely left the amateurs,” Ruiz explained to me. “I did 39 fights, three losses.”
Despite her apparent talent as a boxer, she turned her back on boxing and, rightly, put family first, as her parents had done for her and her siblings many years earlier.
“I did try going back after I had my first child, but it was just difficult,” she said. “I didn’t really have the support that I needed. I breastfed my first child, so it was more difficult for me to do it. I had to put (the gloves) down.”
Going on to have two more children, Adelaida proudly raised her kids until a point where she was able to once again explore returning to boxing.
“I turned professional at 27, so it was almost ten years that I left the gym. I was rusty; I would get so frustrated. My youngest child was five my daughter was seven, and my eldest was nine. It was really hard because I would go from work to pick up my children and go to the gym. I would have them sitting down (at the gym), but we all know children don’t sit down (laughs)! They were all over the gym, and they would start fighting and arguing over toys and whatever. It was hard for me to train, but I did it.”
Possessing a limited time to imprint her legacy as a professional boxer and reach her full potential, ‘La Cobra’ continued to implement her style in the amateurs of beating people up. She had no time to waste.
“I’ve always been an aggressive fighter since the amateurs. Most of my amateur fights were referee-stopped contests. They would stop the fights in the first or second round. Not many went to three rounds.”
“I think my style is changing, but my aggressiveness is still there. The difference between my first fight to now is: before, I would look for the knockout, now, I let it come. I think it’s experience.”
At 9-0 with four stoppages and a devastating highlight-reel one-punch knockout of Brenda Enriquez, time would once again become a factor when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020. Seventeen months passed without a fight.
“It was pretty depressing. Yes, I did lose some time there. It doesn’t seem like too long to others, but I’ve already lost ten years. When that hit, it was pushing me back again. It took a toll on me and my dad. Our goals had to stop, and we didn’t know when we could continue.”
Thankfully, a worthwhile clash beckoned as Ruiz traveled to enemy territory in Mexico to battle Sonia Osorio for her interim WBC 115-pound crown in the spring of 2021 before a bitterly disappointing climax.
“First round started, and I felt very strong,” the super-flyweight told me. “I felt like I had her, and in the second round, the head clash happened. She was coming in with the head, and I was throwing at the same time. It was an accidental headbutt because I went down, and she came in with her head.”
“It was just a small, little cut, not on the eye. It was on the side of the head. It was not like the blood was going into her eye.”
The contest was halted at the conclusion of the second round, and Osorio retained her belt via a deflating technical draw.
“It felt really wrong because I’ve seen worse,” Ruiz added. “It had nothing to do with the cut. I don’t think it was the right decision.”
“That whole entire fight felt wrong since we got there.”
Two stoppage wins, including a WBC Silver title victory, led to a rematch with Osorio in Costa Rica, live on DAZN.
“I was concerned about her head coming in because she does come in a lot with the head. This fight, me and my father (Juan Ruiz), who is my coach, used my distance, not allowing her to get in at all, keeping her away, and to not fight with her. Keep her away and not allow her in. I think I did a pretty good job in that fight. I dominated her.”
The dominant display from Ruiz captured not only the interim WBC strap but also redemption. Hopes of a shot at the full champion, Lourdes Juarez, began, albeit in vain.
“I know I wanted to fight Juarez at the time,” the 35-year-old said. “My promoter, at the time, offered for Juarez to fight with me. The money she was asking for, we didn’t have that at the time.”
“I wanted to fight Juarez. My promoter messaged the WBC. They told him: ‘Have her fight for the silver (title), and after that, there’s an interim (title), so she needs to fight the interim first, and then she can fight Juarez.'”
“We had to do step-step-step. If that’s the way it is, let’s do it so I can become mandatory to fight the champion.”
“Once I got the interim title, at the time (Asleys) Gonzalez had the absolute WBC (title). She said she would fight me, but unfortunately, she had promoter issues. I had promoter issues, so the fight never happened.”
Three wins, two by knockout, subsequently catapulted Ruiz to No.1 rankings with both the WBC and WBA, as well as a No.2 spot with the WBO. Surely a mandatory title shot is on the horizon?
“That’s what I’m believing so,” Ruiz responded. “But it’s been like that for a year already. For whatever reason, the champions always defend with someone else.”
WBA champion Clara Lescurat agreed to face Ruiz after a scheduled defense, then got hurt. Apparently, a similar situation occurred with the IBF champion, Micaela Milagros Lujan.
With a 15-0-1 record, an interim title belt in hand, Sheer Sports managing and promotional free agency, Ruiz should finally get a super-flyweight world title shot in 2024. Failing that, a move up to bantamweight awaits.
“I want to go up to 118 (pounds), the bantamweight division. It seems like they are willing to unify titles; they’re willing to fight each other. They’re not afraid to risk it. They want to fight.”
“They seem not to be wanting to unify against each other,” she said of the super-flyweights. “There’s champions at 115, and they don’t fight each other. It seems they don’t want to risk it. They continue defending with others who are not ranked in the top ten.”
“There’s a lot of politics involved; a lot of money involved. It’s not who you are but who you know. I learned that a lot.”
Fighting out of the Century Sheriff Boxing Gym in Los Angeles, don’t be surprised to see Adelaida Ruiz lift one or more, world championships in the coming year.