I was reading about his fight with Thaxton in an old boxing monthly mag I have. He was in line for a world title shot and the fight with Thaxton was just a warm up. Thaxton was a very late sub in the fight as well (3rd choice apparently) and knocked scrap iron out in the first round! Correct me if I am wrong, but didn't Ryan get knocked out in the 1st in his very next fight after the Thaxton one? I don't know anything else about him really, how was his career afterwards? - I'm not guessing it was good.
He had been knocked down by Carlos Palomino and Shaun Cogan before so there were question marks about his biscuit tin but he was unbelievably sensational beating long time UK number one Ross Hale in one round. His record was something like 22-0 (20 ko's). Thaxton had been beaten by Colin Dunne in a cracking small hall fight earliar that year, flooring him in the process. He was a huge underdog but was considered dangerous because of his kick boxing background and Ryans percieved susceptability. Having just watched Terry Dunstan outscore Dennis Andries and Chris Saunders-Kevin Lueshing engage in fight of the year (maybe decade), the crowd were silenced as Thaxton detonated a devastating right hook on the WBO number one contenders chin.... goodnight Paul. It was the first of a great run of KO wins for Thaxton who brought into the fight a very low KO ratio. Ryan went on to fight Andy Holligan in a make or break fight, which ended in the first round again. He came back again at Welterweight beating Micheal Monaghan in two rounds (in hindsight a pretty excellent win) then was blasted out by another puncher with a low KO %, Geoff McCreesh for the British Welterweight title.
Getting ko'd again can have alot to do with other aspects rather than purely physical. The confidence can go. The tenacity in training lost and so on.
:good He wore an Arsenal jacket on his way to the arena in the De La Hoya fight, otherwise I would never have known he was a fan!
Well ODLH was knocked down a few times early in his career but he proved later in his career he had a chin made of iron.
