Podcast host Teddy Altas says Jarrell Miller was “robbed” of a victory against former unified heavyweight champion Andy Ruiz Jr. in their 12-round contest last Saturday at the BMO Stadium in Los Angeles.
Atlas feels that Miller, 36, won every round after the third, sweeping 4 through 12 on activity, aggression, wearing down Ruiz. It was obvious that the 34-year-old Ruiz, who hadn’t fought in two years since 2022, had nothing left after the third round.
Atlas Criticizes Judges
The judges scored the fight as a twelve-round draw. Fans at ringside booed the decision loudly, feeling that Miller (26-1-2, 22 KOs) should have won against the former IBF, WBA, and WBO champion Ruiz (35-2-1, 22 KOs). The scores were 116-112 for Miller, but the other two judges had it 114-114.
The draw effectively saved Ruiz’s career. If he’d lost, his marketability would have taken a major hit, and it would have hurt his goal of fighting Anthony Joshua in a trilogy match.
That’s the fight that Ruiz has been pining away for since becoming wealthy from two fights against Joshua in 2019. Ruiz got $10 million from those two fights, and he’s been pushing for a third ever since. He just hasn’t had the ambition to keep fighting regularly to earn the third match.
“They robbed him. It was a disgrace. It was a horrible [decision],” said Teddy Atlas on his YouTube channel, reacting to the judges scoring last Saturday’s fight between Andy Ruiz Jr. and Jarrell Miller as a draw.
Atlas echoes the fan sentiment about the Ruiz-Miller results, as they saw it as a clear win for Miller. It’s not that he looked good, because he looked terrible too, but it was Ruiz who had nothing left in his gas tank after the first three rounds. Ruiz took a beating from Miller in rounds 4 through 12 and appeared close to being stopped on several occasions
“Boxing has a problem—bad judges. I don’t know if they’re corrupt or just incompetent, but they hurt Miller. After the third round, Miller won every round. Maybe one close one [he lost to Ruiz in the last nine rounds],” said Atlas.
Some fans felt that if Miller weren’t a popular ex-champion and fighting in his native Southern California, he would have lost the fight. In other words, if Miller were some no-name fighter, the judges would have given Miller a decisive 9-3 victory last Saturday.
Miller may have faced a guy who is too popular and with big fights looming over the horizon. Those kinds of fighters are difficult to beat. The only way to beat them is to knock them out and take the judges out of the game.
Computer Scoring Needed
In the future, I think humans should be removed from the judging, and computers should score. That’s the ideal way of scoring fights.
“He started using his hands, outworking Ruiz and seeing Ruiz as a proverbial boulder going downhill. He pushed it,” Atlas continued, saying that Miller was taking over the fight starting in the fourth round and dominating the remainder of the contest last Saturday night.
“Yeah, he [Miller] got hit with some shots, but the punches became less and less from Ruiz. If Miller had a little bit more in the gas tank, he might have even stopped Ruiz. He won the next nine rounds, and they robbed him. They made it a draw,” said Altas.
Ruiz looked like he was on the verge of being stopped in the later rounds from the 9th, but Miller just couldn’t muster up enough offense to finish him. Miller was too exhausted to throw punches for the entire three minutes of each round, which allowed a badly hurt Ruiz to survive. If this had been a different heavyweight with excellent stamina, like Daniel Dubois, Ruiz wouldn’t have survived past the eighth.
Atlas Champions Miller’s Performance
“He [Miller] got the opportunity and made the most of it, and I respect that. He lost the weight [40+ lbs], and he didn’t cry afterward,” said Atlas. “They [Ruiz’s friends in the audience] were quiet because they thought he lost.
“You heard the boos. They were booing,” said Atlas about the crowd’s reaction when the scores were announced after the fight. “I felt this represented a horrible treatment of Miller and another black eye for the sport of boxing.”
The crowd was furious after the fight, and rightfully so. Ruiz had lost, but the judges had saved it. A rematch would make sense, but it’s questionable whether Ruiz will agree to it because he’s likely to be given more lucrative fight options.
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