As the weeks leading up to the Kirk Johnson vs. John Ruiz WBA world Heavyweight title fight unfolded, the close relationship between members of Team Ruiz became apparently very family orientated to me, not necessarily blood related but close knit and tight as any family could be.

The Press room was empty on the first day of opening and I entered, poured myself a coffee from the vendor and prepared a complimentary Bagel from the Press food table, whilst waiting for the place to start filling up. I had briefly spoken to a very nice gentleman called Robert Trieger who was Publicity agent for the WBA champion John Ruiz. This man sat down and explained how team Ruiz was structured. The most important people to the Champion were the people who were closest to him, his lovely wife, his brother and several others who were obviously the most comfortable for him to be around.

I spoke about how I knew John from back in the days when John was a light heavyweight based in Great Britain under management of Frank Maloney, who managed Lennox Lewis, the current holder of two of the three remaining belts excluding the WBA which was under proud custody of Mr. Ruiz, (also may I add the belt is the oldest and more established of the four recognized titles that were in current circulation).

I laughed at the irony of the circumstances that Mr. Trieger and I shared; you see Bob, as he likes to be referred to, has an interest in other fighters on the East coast, one of which I was very familiar with, the huge Irish import Kevin McBride who now lives in nearby Boston under the watchful eye of the Petronelli brothers of Marvin Hagler fame... Kevin was at one time managed by Mr. Frank Maloney and also released after Maloney had doubts about McBride's real potential as a big time prospect following several losses on British turf.

Maloney had conflicting interests and a large stable of very successful boxers back in the mid nineties. Lennox Lewis was taking up a lot of Frank's time and energies whilst John Ruiz was a 185 lbs. boxer who made some impressive cameo appearances on British shores beating some very good quality Heavyweights easily getting a decent English fan base in doing so. One instance in particular was when Johnny was penciled in as an unknown to box a young and very capable heavyweight called Julius Francis who at the time was a big East End favourite on the London scene.

Julius and John were due to square off in Bristol , the show was to feature Julius, a 29 year old with a 6-0 record at the time, with a great future. I attended the show and remember seeing the look on the face of the extremely muscular 230 lbs. Francis on the scales as he towered above the much smaller and unknown quiet man; confidence oozed from Julius and he merely dismissed any chance of an upset in this one by pre judging his little known opponent. This mistake proved costly, in fact it cost him his first defeat as he was manhandled by the crafty determination of the Puerto Rican prospect who stopped him in embarrassing fashion in front of a surprised partisan attendance.

That was my earliest recollection of John Ruiz although not the last on British soil. He returned several times to beat other larger Heavyweight opponents again and again, in fact he took a total of 20 rounds to thrash six large heavyweights in just two years on British soil: Cordwell Hylton, Julius, Derrick Roddy, Mike Murray, Jack Basting and Yuri Yelistratov. It occurred to me back then that he could handle the bigger guys despite his comparatively slighter frame...this was a question I wanted to put to John in person, was it a natural process to move from the 200 pound arena to his present 230 pounds or did he require help?

John explained the need for his current fitness coach Keith Mcgrath, a former pro baseball player who had a wealth of experience in the field of nutrition and fitness techniques. Keith and a female nutritionist specialist from the New England Patriots football team pooled together some ideas with the goal of turning John Ruiz into a solid and flexible 225 pound heavyweight who could compete with the current crop of big heavyweights that were emerging around him. Keith did not have that hard a task due to his very diligent and willing student; he employed his ethic of working John through weights programs in cycles developing his body into a conditioned and athletic 225 by not allowing his body to get stale. Keith would rotate the program through different modes of weights regimes, smaller weights and larger repetitions to make his body add muscle tissues that would stick to his frame and become natural to carry, followed by larger strength exercises to make John capable of holding his ground against bigger opposition.

Keith followed grounds covered by strength coaches before him with similar success.. Mackie Shilstone took a 185 pound Mike Spinks into a historic fight with dominant undefeated Heavyweight champion Larry Holmes in the mid eighties by using similar techniques aiding Michael to become a dynamic and tricky 210 pound demon that would arrest the title from Holmes in a duet of historic bouts that remain priceless in heavyweight folklore.. Keith had also studied the work Tim Hallmark did on Evander Holyfield, which helped "Commander Vander" develop from a dominant cruiser titlist to a legendary 220 pound heavyweight gladiator who was to go on and compete in some of the last 15 years best heavyweight battles, scalping the likes of Buster Douglas, Mike Tyson, Riddick Bowe and Michael Moorer in epic scrapes that still today are held sacred in heavyweight archives.

The intention of getting John to the point where he is today, a 225 pound champion has been fulfilled and now it was up to the rest of the team to play their parts in keeping the Machine rolling smoothly in other ways. The first man to join me in the Press Center was Brian Leahy, a valued member of team Ruiz and a professional Chiropractic. Brian offered one day to treat me to Dinner at an exclusive Mandalay Bay restaurant called Charlie Palmers in the most classiest area of The Four seasons quarter of The Mandalay's fine resort; over about 6 courses of sublime cuisine Brian explained the roles of some of Team Ruiz other important members.. Norman Stone is more than your average manager, he is like Johnny's father figure, if you stepped on John's foot, Norman would limp for weeks, it is as close as it can get.

Norman "Stoney" Stone is one of the most colorful and charismatic characters I have ever encountered and I have met some wacky guys. I had dealt with Rock Newman and Dennis Rappaport before now but Norman is the original "tell it like it is man." 'You hurt my guy and you hurt me' is Stoney's criteria, he is capable of insults, cheap shots and even a near physical confrontation with anyone who even dares to try to get an edge over his charge. He has stood steadfast by John Ruiz through thick and thin, he loves his fighter and that's the end of it.

Norman has seen hardship in his life, I could tell, and he has a heart of gold. He is a Vietnam veteran and a recovering alcoholic who although battling his own wars in many ways can never be doubted regarding his loyalty to the cause.. "Stoney is my man and if you need to know anything concerning my future in the ring Norman is the one to ask," Ruiz would state, "we are in this together an equally loyal John Ruiz would continue, he was there for me in my darkest hour."

John's darkest hour would be the horrible night in Atlantic City when he was put center stage in a fight where he was heavily fancied to have the cunning to overcome tough Samoan power hitter David Tua. The fight was muted as an eliminator, at stake the WBC's Intercontinental belt. After approximately 3 seconds of the opening bell the unthinkable occurred; Tua let his Sunday punch go, a lethal left hook straight from the text book which hurt John and he never recovered, on the 13 second mark of the opener he was having his mouth piece pulled out and was being asked how many fingers the doctor was holding in front of him.

"He pulled me back onto the straight and narrow" John would state of his manager, "and here we are today proud holders of the WBA championship belt, ahead of the rest." After such a bad start to a heavyweight future, John went -as Don King so elegantly put it- "into a time capsule" and overtook everyone and remained undefeated to the point that he could no longer be ignored... John showed character beyond that of your average pugilist, many fighters would have doubted their whole existence as a competitor at that level, but thanks to his close knit team and surrounding support, Ruiz oozed positively and became somewhat untouchable... The back to the futures que capsule was like putting blinkers on a racehorse and letting it run every week, regardless of the surroundings or conditions.

This started on the 14th of January 1997 in an NABF title chance against Jimmy Thunder, Johnny won over a powerfully superior opponent by using boxing ability to claim the explosively named champions' title on points over 12.. In his first defence he chose to prove that he possessed more than just clever boxing skills against Haitian Ray Anis, a one time avoided puncher who needed more than his native Voodoo heritage to fend off the demons on this occasion, as a devilish Ruiz took a blazing 22 seconds to outgun a shell shocked Anis to a KO loss in round 1. This was personally the first time that Ruiz made me take a closer look and say "what the hell happened to John Ruiz?"

John Ruiz had taken his whole show to a different level and was putting together a fresh portfolio of scalps to make the likes of myself doubt my own preconceptions of the Puerto Rican's limitations, most of which were judged from the outcome of the Tua loss. One bad night had set the minds of the watching media and public to write off Mr. Ruiz and expect the worse, but it never got worse. He would defend once again against Tony Tucker in January 1998, again doing what nobody had ever done when he stopped the one time IBF kingpin in 11 rounds, dropping him twice in the first for good measure and again hushing the mouths of his many naysayers.

September 1998 and John Ruiz's potential hit home to me on a very personal level. My very close friend Jerry Ballard was being touted as a soon to be terror in the heavyweight ranks. I believed in him and was to sit ringside on the night that his showdown with John was to finally take place. I knew exactly what Jerry was capable of and knew how much the fight meant to him.

Visually Jerry was imposing, magnificently muscular and mean faced to boot, he was moody from the day the fight date was set and was aiming to show the world watching, on The Holyfield vs. Vaughn Bean show in Atlanta's Georgia Dome that Jerry Ballard had arrived.. While receiving the arbiter's instructions Jerry seemed to be breathing fire at the relatively smaller Ruiz, he seemed ready to explode onto the world scene and I expected the worse for John. However, the event that I was about to witness was stunning to watch; the bout was for the vacant WBA North Americas title but it was worth much more than a mere strap of leather to both combatants, it really was a more like a duel that would catapult the winner to a higher plane in the heavyweight standings... the outcome and its manifestation was staggering. Ruiz was to plainly walk through every single piece of ammunition that Jerry had to offer and do what no one could manage to do in the Maryland fighter's entire career and drop him, not once but so many times that the whole four round massacre became a mere blur of Jerry climbing again and again off of the canvas until the compassionate referee salvaged the punch ridden Ballard from his own bravery.

Ruiz was now, in my opinion, free of any tag that I had placed on him following the David Tua fiasco and was in my opinion one to keep my very shrewd eye on... and that was what led him on August the 12th to attempt to become the very first Hispanic Heavyweight champion if he were to overcome the courage of the highly respected and ageless WBA champion of the time Evander Holyfield, in a fight that would be the first clash in a trilogy of highly controversial meetings .. to cut a long story short, it would take John until March 3, 2001 in a rematch labeled "The Last Word" to arrest the title from Holyfield and realize his dream. After losing controversially in their first meeting Ruiz returned and won convincingly doing what only Riddick Bowe had previously done, in dropping the Holy one on his way to his historic claiming of the precious belt. A third meeting would once again be a close affair yet a solid draw would set John a place as an established owner of his title in his own right.

Norman Stone is always trying to get his fighter a head start by creating new angles, getting under his opponent's skin. For instance, at the weigh in Kirk Johnson showed a small layer of excess around his midriff, which prompted Stoney to grab the microphone and holler, "No need for the spare tire buddy." Later in the week Stoney would make a personal issue almost a physical confrontation with HBO commentator Larry Merchant. From what I could gather Larry had been a great believer in Ruiz, and had favoured John on the night of his fight with Tua.

The manner in which John was defeated may have embarrassed Merchant, who according to Norman became publicly disrespectful whenever a John Ruiz issue would arise on the HBO airwaves. In a bid to somehow redeem his former favouritism of John as a hot prospect, Larry would jump ship and reverse his feelings about the now WBA champ. In any case, Larry and Stoney made it up close and personal right before my very eyes and I was glaring at loyalty in its rarest form, Norman was pulled away for his own good while Larry was whisked away to safety for his own protection. Bottom line, John has paid his dues and Stoney is not going to have his man beg for respect any more; he is a reigning champion, not a meek challenger again, but the WBA Heavyweight Champion and with that title comes RESPECT!

This is what would bring John, myself and his family-like crew once again to Las Vegas on yet another pilgrimage to prove his worth as WBA heavyweight champion and step out of the time capsule and dismiss the challenge of #1 contender Kirk Johnson.

JONES' EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH JOHN RUIZ