Holyroid ducked Ruddock, the most dangerous heavyweight contender outside of Iron Mike in the early 90s, and opted to fight Foreman instead Who would've won in 1990 or 1991 when they for supposed to fight?
Holyfield wins on points in a rugged contest. He was a better all round boxer. Ruddock was pretty good,but overall I find him quite overrrated.
Holyfield didnt duck Ruddock Tyson was closer to getting a title shot than Ruddock in 1991, he'd just beaten Ruddock twice & wouldve fought Holy if he didnt get injured & arrested. Holyfield wouldve fought Donovan if he had beaten Bowe & Ruddock beaten Lewis but the opposite happened.
All Evander. Late tko. He'd punch holes through Razor and back then his energy level was about 3x what ruddock maintained in the ring. Even if hit, Evander weathers the storms and it'd be Ruddock being asked to absorb to stay in the fight. Evander does his homework on the guy like he did in the Douglas fight and beats him to the punch landing a right hand while Razor is loading up and dipping to his left trying to throw that left hook.
Ruddock ditched his best work early and fell in love with his power, which was admittedly formidable. Holyfield picks him apart and beats him by wide UD or late stoppage. It'd be fun though.
Many ducked Razor Ruddock at that time and Holyfield was the biggest name to duck him Holyfield was negotiating with Ruddock in 1990 after beating Douglas but refused to fight him Ruddock would give Holyfield a serious beating ... its clear that he was the best fighter in the division besides Tyson ... Bowe was another guy who didn't want to fight him either ... Holyfield fought Bowe only after Ruddock was taken out of the picture by Tyson in 1991 but before that in 1990 he was the most dangerous heavyweight to ascend through the rankings.
Do you have some article or piece of material that you can post with a direct quote from Holyfield stating that he "refused" to face him?
[ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donovan_Ruddock[/ame] It makes sense. Ruddock SHOULD have gotten a shot at that time period but was left fighting lesser opponents since no one would step up to face him. Holyfield was the undisputed champion at that time with all the belts and the linear title and should have fought the best contender. Instead the only one who would fight him was Tyson, who was trying to regain his crown and wanted to take the most dangerous guy on to prove that he had returned to his old form and deserved a championship bout. Tyson even commented on Ruddock's power claiming he hit like a mule could kick. Watch the Tyson-Ruddock fights. Its clear that Holyfield would be outclassed.
Okay, well I'll accept that you at least put forth the effort to post something, even though Wikipedia is just about the worst source available on the web. I think the phrase "refused to face him " is a tad strong for a man who fought in so many wars against so many formidable opponents.
Hardly If you were around at that time you'd know that Ruddock was feared and was being ducked by Holyfield. The whole point of Tyson facing Ruddock was because it was such a dangerous fight for him ... no one else would fight him and Mike wanted to prove a point that he was the best and took on the best.
I WAS around at that time. But I don't seem to recall Holyfield receiving much **** for ducking opponents. Doesn't mean that it didn't happen of course, but I have a feeling that money, politics and public interest also played a role in which fights were made and which ones weren't, as opposed to Evander just getting cold feet. Incidentally, Ruddock made the very same accusation of Tyson when Mike pulled out of their originally scheduled bout for November of 1989.
Except that Tyson was sick and didn't fight again until 1990 ... eventually he did fight Ruddock in 1991. Holyfield never fought Ruddock when he was the best contender. He was a higher caliber of an opponent than old Foreman was and Holyroid fought the latter. They were in talks and Holyfield disagreed for no reason which is blatant ducking. Similar to Bowe and Lewis.