By Steven Cummings
Damian Knyba dropped Andy Ruiz in round seven and won a unanimous decision in their 12-round heavyweight fight on Friday. Knyba (18-1, 11 KOs) came back from his only loss, a TKO3 at the hands of Agit Kabayel with a strong performance over Ruiz.
Official scores were 117-110, 114-113 and 114-113, although the two 1-point margins were utterly absurd.
Knyba controlled the first half of the fight from distance and left Ruiz stuck in the mud, unable to fire off combinations. In the seventh Knyba staggered his opponent and drove him back to the ropes where he landed point-blank power shots with both hands. Ruiz went down in a heap, badly hurt but he beat the count.
Ruiz (35-3-1, 22 KOs) came on in subsequent rounds and drew a bit closer but Knyba had too big of a lead to overcome without scoring knockdowns. Knyba was never in trouble, although the scorecards revealed that without the knockdown this would have been a majority draw.
For the 30-year old Knyba, there may be a future in the heavyweight division with all of the new champions being crowned since Oleksandr Usyk retired. Ruiz, sadly, may have a future as well but he will just be a name on the marquee as a former heavyweight champion. His days of being a force in the division proved to be over on this night.
