Zhang from the Hrgovic or Joyce fights against Ruddock probably of the 1st Tyson fight. Who wins this matchup?
I think Zhang would steamroll Ruddock. He has the better chin and also the better defense. I see him walking Ruddock down, parrying incoming shots and getting his own shots in breaking Ruddock down similar to the Wilder fight. Ruddock is similarly a sort of one trick pony, Zhang simply need to look out for the smash and body shots while preserving his stamina. Ruddock wasn't difficult to hurt, and Zhang hits just as hard if not harder than several of the guys who hurt Ruddock. Despite being as slow as molasses, Zhang has good timing and accuracy able to catch boxers like Parker plenty. Zhang would obviously get tagged a few times given how huge and slow he was, but Ruddock isn't taking him out with a single shot he's not a stationary, washed up James Smith or Dokes. If anyone wants to bring up the Kabayel loss, it's irrelevant. Kabayel used good pivoting and got in an out targeting the body consistently to tire Zhang out. Kabayel wasn't swinging for the fences at mid range the way Ruddock would be and he is the far superior body puncher. Zhang by KO in 5-7 rounds.
That version of Wilder was past it and was hesitant to throw his right hand so he had nothing to offer Zhang in terms of dangerous offence. Ruddock is also physically stronger than Wilder IMO more built with a more solid mass. To me it boils down whether or not Ruddock can survive the first 6 rounds. If he can his chances greatly increase as Zhang has no gas tank he's only won 1 fight in his life that has gone past 6 rounds.
Zhang had issues going late in to a fight. If Ruddock can survive an early KO loss, then he's in with a good chance.
I mean are you forgetting Zhang brutally knocked out the physical powerhouse Joyce? Ruddock is neither stronger, nor more durable than Joyce who had plenty of "solid mass" and wasn't gunshy at all. Whether Wilder was past it or not doesn't change the fact Ruddock was a one trick pony. If Zhang takes away the smash, he's won 80% of the fight. I do agree if it goes past 6, Ruddock has a chance of turning things around.
Joyce is not a puncher though he relies on breaking opponents down with sheer will and workrate. He also doesn't have the handspeed of Ruddock who is a deceptively fast sneaky explosive power puncher. This fight would probably be quite a low output fight with both fighters looking to land single power punches in a fight that would on the edge of your seat stuff. The fight truly comes down to if Ruddock survives the first 6 rounds because if Zhang doesn't get rid of him in that time I think he's in trouble.
I didn't say he was. I said Joyce was a strong dude (probably stronger than Ruddock) and Zhang still overwhelmed him. Twice. He also threw with both hands. Well we already agree on the bolded. I also agree it would be a tense low output fight. But I think Zhang wears him out. Ruddock has the tools to win, but would be too dumb to capitalize on them and likely gets greedy opening up too much and getting caught by something big.
Boy is Zhang overrated, he beat Joyce and a corpse in Wilder and that's it. Razor by vicious 6th round ko
Mike Weaver Michael Dokes Bonecrusher Smith Greg Page James Broad In a fight everyone agreed was stopped too soon he was stopped by Tyson in 7 rounds. In the rematch He went 12 brutal rounds with Mike Tyson survivng every bomb landed on him. Zhang couldn't go 12 rounds riding in the back of a truck. When the Chinese mummy's gas tank is empty say round 5 ,Razor will land his big smash and Zhang will be seeing Moo Goo Gai pan for a week.
