Ross Puritty

Ross Puritty (born December 18, 1966) is an American former professional boxer. A high-level journeyman and occasional heavyweight contender, Puritty is remembered for his fight with Wladimir Klitschko in 1998 in which he won the World Boxing Council (WBC) International heavyweight title, as well as for fighting former World Boxing Organization (WBO) world heavyweight champion, Tommy Morrison, to a draw. He also holds victories over former world title challengers Jorge Luis Gonzalez and Joe Hipp.

Football and professional boxing career Puritty played as a defensive lineman at UTEP for four seasons, starting on the 1988 team that won 10 games and went to the program's first bowl in 20 years. Over the course of his college career, he recorded 12 sacks, 18 pass breakups, and forced 8 fumbles. In the summer before his senior season, Puritty began training to become a professional boxer, adopting a peek-a-boo defensive stance with very high hands inspired by Floyd Patterson. He did not have an amateur career and initially struggled professionally, losing to Cleveland Woods by technical knockout after being knocked down twice in his second fight. Through his first six professional fights Puritty had compiled a mediocre record of 3–3, and after thirteen professional fights he fell to 6–7, with five of his defeats being on points.

A July 1994 match against Tommy Morrison, 41–2 at the time, was a turning point in Puritty's career, as he was outlanded and tired out near the end of the fight, but the bout was scored a draw after ten rounds on the strength of Puritty's two knockdowns of Morrison. Puritty then went on a tear, winning his next ten consecutive bouts, all by knockout. Puritty had made his name and was now considered a top-tier opponent, earning matches against Hasim Rahman and Michael Grant (both of whom beat him on points), and against Jorge Luis Gonzalez and Joe Hipp, both of whom Puritty beat. Following the win against Hipp, Puritty was matched against world title contenders Corrie Sanders, Larry Donald, and Chris Byrd, losing all three fights on points. In 1998 on his way to a four fight winning streak, Puritty defeated Mark Hulstrom, then knocked out Wladimir Klitschko to win his first championship belt; it was Klitschko's first loss, and would be one of only five losses in his illustrious professional career.

After a draw with Frankie Swindell in January 2000, Puritty posted a record of 4–7–2, finishing with a career record of 31 wins and 20 losses, including 27 knockouts.

Puritty has been generally acknowledged as a fighter with an "iron chin" due to his ability to absorb heavy blows. After the two early stoppages - one TKO and one retirement - he was only stopped again once in his career, by a small cut to the eyebrow, by Vitali Klitschko: the other 17 of his defeats all went the distance.

Ross Puritty now resides in Wichita, Kansas with his wife and five children and works as a salesperson at Lexus of Wichita.

Professional boxing record