1996 - "Tyson Ducked Lewis" ?

my2sense how was it an outright lie that ruddock was finished by the time of the lewis fight what did ruddock do after the tyson fights ? lewis in 92 was not that good watch the problems a shot tucker and bruno gave him as soon as he fought a live opponent at their peak mccall he was exposed as a novice i dont want to sound disparraging of lewis but has any top class heavyweight ever beat so many has beens like lewis has tyson holyfield ruddock tucker etc the list goes on they were either shot tyson or fading fast holyfield

 

Will people be sayin Shane is duckin Berto because he got paid step aside money for the Mayweather fight to become a reality? Its the same thing. Step aside money doesn't mean your duckin anyone. I'm a Lewis supporter I may add.

 

But Ruddock's career turning point was against Lewis, not Tyson. Heading into the Lewis fight he was still as **** hot as ever.

 

The same thing he was doing before the fights - beating ex-champs and rising contenders.

He'd already beaten a "live/peak" opponent when he beat Gary Mason before he even he even won the title; and the "live" McCall you refer to was beaten by the "shot" Tucker and Bruno that you dismiss.

 

Kind of my thoughts on this too. You can't really tell when Ruddock's turning point was, because Lewis beat him so convincingly any version of Ruddock would have been blown out. It wasn't a matter of whether or not Ruddock was shot, the issue is that Lewis was able to tag him cleanly and no version either pre or post Tyson could have stood up to those shots. The only real question is whether or not pre-tyson Ruddock could have avoided getting hit cleanly, and I don't know the answer to that question, but I suspect not.

 

No it wasnt, it was against Tyson who at that time was a better fighter than that version of Lewis by most peoples account. Tyson X2, Lewis, Morrison would certainly set the trend of decline.

 

The Tyson fights didn't do anything to diminish Ruddock's reputation or standing in the division, and if anything only enhanced it. Hence, he was a sizable favorite to beat Lewis even on his home turf in England.

Nothing "turned" for Ruddock until after Lewis demolished him.

No they don't, because he had fights in between that clearly showed when and how he was declining or not.

 

It certainly showed one fighter taking a severe beating over two fights. Doesnt take a rocket scientist to know what kind of affect that has on a fighter after. It reduces your punch resistance and ability to see punches coming.

Losing more consistently would be a tunring point. The Lewis loss was just more proof he was washed up. Morrison was the nail in the coffin.

One fight against a washed up former champ who hadnt had a meaningful win in eight years, and another against a small fighter who had no meaningful wins ever, proved nothing really.
I would say Dokes and Smith were Morrison caliber opponents, wouldnt you? Maybe Dokes a little better?

 

Lewis wasnt even on the radar as anything more than an up and coming challenger for the title, thats why Ruddock was favored as he had just challenged for the #1 contender spot and Lewis was unproven at that level, but that didnt change the fact Ruddock had just come off of two wars with Tyson and as you said looked like he got hit by a truck coming off the second fight. I think you would agree with me that in most cases the affects of that type of punishment are not favorable to a fighters future.
Tyson wasnt considered washed up, and was certainly more highly regarded than Lennox Lewis, especially after Lewis went on to get knocked out by one of his sparring partners.
The Ruddock fight was impressive, but both fighters actions thereafter certainly put things in proper perspective for me.

 

He might have gotten back up and continued. I saw a focused and well prepared Ruddock get up from a Tyson lefthook that was equally as damaging as Lewis right hand.

Ruddock maintained his top ranking after the Tyson fight because Tyson went to prison and was also being used by King. Both Phil Jackson and Greg Page were also Don King fighters. After losing to Lewis for the #1 spot, there was no reason for anyone to fight Ruddock and thats the reasoning behind the longer time off.

Sure thats absolutely part of it, but not the start of it. The damage that Tyson did to Ruddock over two fights certainly cant be overlooked as a factor of Ruddocks decline, not only physically but mentally. Ruddock had reached the pinnacle of his career, fighting what was considered the top name in boxing, and failed twice.

 

Not really. When was the next time he had a comparable performance, five years later against Golota?
He looked pretty shitty in his next few fights after Ruddock before getting stopped by Mcall.