Still a top flight prospect in Bellator’s welterweight division, Ed Ruth (8-2) is looking to get back in the win column this weekend. He’s set to face Taylor Johnson, in Ruth’s first fight during the pandemic.
The Penn State wrestler, once again sharing a card with fellow alumni Phil Davis this Friday at Bellator 245, suffered a one-sided defeat against Yaroslav Amosov back in February. It was just the second loss of Ruth’s career, but despite so much time having passed since — due to circumstances beyond anyone’s control — he’s not at all irritated by the wait to get back.
“It wasn’t frustrating at all. If anything I was happy with the time that I got, just to look over my thoughts, to reflect on the match,” Ruth said during the Bellator 245/246 media day this week. “I just had so much time to take everything into the gym and just work on myself.”
The pandemic doesn’t have him all that frustrated either. Perhaps “Easy” Ed Ruth comes from his easygoing nature.
“If anything I think it [the coronavirus pandemic] helped it a lot more. I got more one-on-one time with my coaches,” he explained. “The gym’s always open. I feel like we’ve always had a problem of too many people in the gym. When you’re sparring, you’re always tripping, falling over somebody. If you’re doing jiu-jitsu, you’re always invading someone else’s space and the next thing you know, you’re on top of another two guys.”
“Now, it’s focused more on the people you want in the gym, and you’re just getting everything that you need,” he added.
Admitting that lockdown has been “isolating,” however, Ruth later added that “all I’ve been doing is trying to keep my mind busy.”
One interesting twist: “I took up the guitar.”
After spending so much time sitting around, not really building a skill, “I heard somebody playing a guitar one day, and I just picked it up and started doing it,” revealed Ruth. “It made me realize ‘wow I’m more of a creative person that I thought.’ I started looking at my life in more creative ways.”
Just don’t expect any live performances just yet. “I just started, so I’m about two months deep.”
Bellator 245 takes place this Friday, September 11 at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, CT. The event airs live on Paramount Network.
