By Ted Sares – As matters transpired, the divine plan contained a different script. This rude awakening became an important part of Vlad’s [sic] steep learning curve, but the memories of that night will come back to haunt him forever.–Heavybetter
This opponent was a couple of notches below my technical level. But he was very, very smart and I learnt a lot from him. He was waiting for his moment…. He took note of my accelerated pace and he realized that I wouldn’t be able to sustain it for all the twelve rounds. He was patiently waiting and…was able to see when he started to explode towards the end of the bout. –Wladimir Klitschko
Rugged top tier journeyman and sometime contender Ross ‘The Boss” Puritty would fight anybody who challenged him. He finished his career with a record of 31-20-3, but there is a story behind the record. He was rarely stopped but he did a lot of stopping himself as he notched 27 KOs. He went 8-8 in his first 16 outings losing to, among others, undefeated Brian Nielsen, and Kirk Johnson..
After an upset draw with Tommy Morrison (41-2 coming in) in 1994, he ran off 10 straight KO wins, 5 coming in the first round. He decked “The Duke” twice and almost had in him out in the tenth and final round. He then lost back to back fights with undefeated Hasim Rahman and Michael “Big” Grant, before running up another 5 straight wax jobs including a TKO over Jorge Luis Gonzalez (24-2) and a savage last round KO against Joe Hipp in a Deep South battle of “The Bosses” in 1997. Against Gonzalez, he battered the over-hyped Cuban until he was forced to take out his mouthpiece s and say, “no mas.”
After losing 3 straight UD’s to Corrie Sanders (32-1), Larry Donald (31-1) and Chris Byrd (25-0), he iced undefeated favored Mark Hulstrom in Denmark in November 1998 and that set the stage juts one month later for Puritty’s shot at the WBC International heavyweight title against undefeated Wladimir Klitschko in Kiev, Ukraine. Dr. Steelhammer was 24-0 at the time with 23 wins coming inside the distance, but aside from Everett Martin who took him the distance, his opposition was far from impressive and perhaps may have deluded him into thinking “The Boss” would be another duck in a row. Moreover, the big “Doctor” had just 70 rounds under his belt which averaged out to 2.91 rounds per fight. Ross had over 160 rounds. Someone should have been looking at the tapes more carefully, for they would have discovered that Puritty had an iron chin, power, enormous will, and great late-round stamina.
The Fight
He [Wlad] looked marvelous throughout his preparation… Everything was excellent in the lead-up. I think that the main cause, the main error was a psychological one. –Vitali
Klitschko
During the course of the first 8 rounds, Wlad stunned “The Boss” with a number of head snappers, but the challenger signaled that he was not going anywhere by occasionally firing back with his own stuff as he began to discourage the big Ukrainian. Then in the eighth canto, Purrity caught Klitschko with some well placed body shots that slowed down the now heavily breathing “Dr. Steelhammer.”While still winning the fight, Wlad was losing his legs and the race was on to see which would happen first.
By the end of the ninth, Wlad’s pins were rubbery and starting to go. Moreover, his punches lacked steam. Meanwhile, “The Boss” (as well as the shocked and silenced crowd) now sensed the kill was within grasp and he picked up the pace. Thirteen seconds before the end of the tenth round, Wlad found himself in an unusual place as he went down in the corner more from exhaustion than anything else. As round 11 began, Puritty, like a shark after bleeding prey, immediately attacked Klitschko with an all-out volley of unanswered punches that forced Wlad’s trainer Fritz Sdunek to jump into the ring and stop the fight just seconds into the round. The impossible had happened. “The Boss” had pulled off an upset of monumental proportions.
Wlad (now 55-3) regrouped and won 17 straight before his shocking loss to Corrie Sanders in 2003. Ross Puritty went 4-1-2 until he was stopped on cuts by an avenging Vitali Klitschko in 2001. Usually fighting in his opponents’ home turf, he would close out his career against typically tough opposition including dukes with undefeated Eddied Chambers and Alexander Dimtrenko.
Ross Purrity was the quintessential road warrior (he fought in 8 different countries) who made his mark as one on the hardest punching, granite-chinned, and entertaining fighters of his era. He now resides in Wichita, Kansas with his family where he mentors inner-city troubled youths and trains amateurs in a team called the Wichita Hard Hitters.
In the end, what was one fighter’s nightmare was a career defining fight for the other. The wins over Gonzalez and Hipp and the draw with Morrison were simply icing on the cake.