1992. Tyson was out of the picture for now. Holyfield was the champ, Bowe was his challenger. Over in the UK we had a rising young star in Lennox Lewis. But his next fight was against the dangerous Donavon Razor Ruddock. Razor had gone almost 19 rounds with Tyson before he went to jail and was respected. This was the 'Who will rise in the fall'? Question. Over 30 years ago but heavyweight boxing was so much better back then.
I remember the issue Fergy (KO i think), the feeling was that Bowe would emerge as the top dog if I recall correctly.
The original idea was to hold a "4 man tournament". Winner of the fight: Holyfield Vs. Bowe against winner of the fight: Lewis Vs. Ruddock The winner of the "4 man tournament" would replace Mike Tyson on the throne.
Yes that was the general feeling, mate. I actually predicted Ruddock to ko Lewis. Lol I had a feeling that his smash would ruin Lennox world. I had Bowe beating EH by ko. But what a great time for boxing.
I am not sure because all I remember is UK fans spent most of the era wondering whether to accept Lennox as a "true Brit"....
Ah that's true, they did. But the more successful he became, the more people decided he was a true Brit. Lol funny that really! Me personally, I liked him from his early fights, once he ko'd Razor, that was it, I was hooked.
I remember that situation well going into October of 1992. I thought it would end up being between Holyfield vs Ruddock sometime in the spring of 1993 but needless to say I was wrong
I definitely tipped Holy as he was my favourite heavyweight back then, although I thought Bowe would definitely be champ sooner or later. Think I tentatively went for Lennox on points.
I wanted Holyfield to beat Bowe for two reasons - I preferred him to Bowe and I figured that there would be more chance of a unification bout between him and Lennox than if Riddick won. Like yourself I tipped Lennox on points. A lot of my friends thought Ruddock would win. Their rarionale being that he'd given Mike Tyson two "tough fights" which baffled me as Ruddock lost both fights quite clearly when it comes down to it. And even then it was quite apparent that MIke was already slipping. I just could n't envisage Lennox beating 'Razor' so explosively.
That two round ko of Ruddock had a lot of people s Jaws dropping, Stevie. He had never gone out like that so quickly. It was a great time for us Brits, we were finally getting an heavyweight that could compete at the big time. In fact in the was the beginning of the end of the all US control of the heavyweight titles.