I heard Ruddock was the mandatory in the early 90s but Holyfield’s team chose Foreman. Is this true? If I was on team holy in the early 90s I’d probably think Ruddock was too dangerous of a fight for any blown up cruiser. Anyone know the situation with this fight?
No..but I'm not positive of Ruddock being dangerous for him. To me Holyfield was already good enough to have beaten post-Douglas Tyson...thus Ruddock wouldn't have been too much of a sweat for him. Holy in the latest 80s and 90s was like this dangerous machine...relentless puncher with a solid defense. His darting style made him a match for anyone at the time...including Lewis imo (I don't see pre-Steward Lewis as near good as the Steward).
This is only speculation but I would assume that Holyfield's team went with Foreman more for economic reasons than out of fear of Ruddock. Outside of Tyson, no one commanded a bigger payday than Foreman did back then.
Holyfield was a warrior & ducked no one. He likely would have knocked Ruddock out inside 10 if they fought although it'd be a dangerous fight no doubt
Foreman was worth more money and was perceived as less of a threat, it’s funny in retrospect as in my opinion George was the superior fighter and more dangerous of the two.
Of course we’re saying that now that we know how good Holyfield was, but back then there was probably a lot question marks about how he would’ve fared against real top heavyweights. I’d imagine some people on his team (not Holyfield himself) would probably want to avoid Ruddock
Foreman was of course where the money was, but I'll say this . Holyfield would outbox Razor, but for the money he would get for this fight it would be dangerous. Evander could get clipped on occasion,
Ruddock was never Holyfield's mandatory. He came close, though. Ruddock fought Tyson twice in 1991 and Lennox Lewis in 1992 ... all three times for the mandatory position, and all told he got dropped about seven times (suffered a broken jaw) and lost all three.
I don’t think so. The WBA, WBC and IBF ratings were kind of all over in where they rated Tyson, Foreman and Ruddock. Think the WBC had George at # 1 but this is all from memory and not fact checking
Perfectly rational decision if it's the case that Holy chose to fight Foreman rather than Ruddock. Foreman's comeback was a big story at that time. I don't think Evander ducked anyone.
Holyfield wanted to fight a prime Vitali Klitscko when he himself was an old man and a shadow of himself. But he ducked Ruddock? GTFOH
Nah, Ruddock lost twice to Tyson and Holy signed to fight Mike. If Ruddock had won he would definitely have been in line for shot, but he didn't.
