Chagaev beats Ruiz to earn WBA title shot

Desseldorf:

Ruslan Chagaev won a shot at the WBA heavyweight title with a split decision win against John Ruiz on Saturday. The Uzbekistan fighter, landing the harder shots, appeared to control most of the elimination fight, which earned him a crack at Russia's titleholder Nicolay Valuev. But one judge called it 115-114 for Puerto Rico's Ruiz, with the other two ruling 116-112 and 117-111 for Chagaev, who improved to 22-0-1. "Chagaev won two or three rounds more than Ruiz - the win was earned,'' said Valuev, who was ringside. Chagaev's left jab was his points-scorer. He rocked Ruiz in the fifth and eighth rounds but never had Ruiz in real trouble. Ruiz, who lost the title to Valuev in December, kept banging away from the inside against the powerful Chagaev. In the 10th, Ruiz tagged Chagaev with several good shots as he staged a rally to try and salvage a title rematch. In the 11th, he snapped Chagaev's head back with an uppercut. But he had lost the fight long beforehand to 28-year-old Chagaev, who beat Cuban great Felix Savon as an amateur. Ruiz, 41-7-1, has been stopped only once, by David Tua in 1996. (AP)