Ross Puritty

Purrity struggled in his early career, 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 kept falling to 6–7, five of the defeats were on points. By this time Puritty was considered nothing more than a useful journeyman who could be used as a trial horse for other young heavyweights. But Puritty was learning the art and science of boxing, and with time and experience his results began to improve.

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.^[1] 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 wining streak, Puritty defeated Mark Hulstrom and Wladimir Klitschko, winning the WBC International heavyweight title from Klitscheko.

Since a draw with Frankie Swindell in January 2000, Puritty has 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 living with his wife Twila and their five children: Chandler, Tonique, Ross, DeAundre, and Maleak.^{[citation needed]} He works as a salesperson at Lexus of Wichita.^[2]

Puritty has taken under his wing amateur boxers such as national contender Jeffery Page from Andover, Kansas and numerous other amateurs in a team known as Wichita Hard Hitters. Also for a short period he coached the Golden Glove champion Charles Ellis through a short but explosive professional career.