Do you agree with the commentary style of Tyson Ruddock II?

Ferdie Pacheco? I think it was frustrating to watch Ruddock use only 30% of his actual ability. I agree with his points may be he yammered on a little too much. It can be irritating to watch a guy with the gifts Razor had not have a clue of how to fight. He was an extreme example. Ferdie was colorful though I got a kick out of him.

With Tyson remember he set the bar pretty high. He was being compared to what he had been a fee years before. People were looking for him to fight that way and was close to it at times but he couldn't sustain that energy.

Do you feel that was a widespread theme in the 90's? To bash fighters?

 

I dislike Ferdie Pachecho but the commentary was probably mostly warranted. A lot of people were saying Tyson and Ruddock were the best heavyweight boxers on the planet. They were being paid millions of dollars.
If those criticisms were being thrown at a couple of novice prospects or journeymen then it wouldn't be warranted but those guys were supposed to be top 3 in the world.

 

I think going through a fight like that can have merit for educational/analysis purposes, but judging fighters that way is daft.

You can nitpick anyone and make them look bad, plus there are often tradeoffs, sometimes you need to leave yourself more vulnerable to be more offensively effective etc. Plus being unorthadox, even if on paper somewhat less effective, can work well if your opponent is too unfamilar with it to deal with it.

 

Well, people say Ruddock was never the same fighter again after those fights. Tyson wouldn't have lasted much longer if he'd stayed out of jail either.
Holyfield received similar criticisms in fights where he took too many shots but somehow outlasted them both, still not a sensible approach.

I think it's valid to criticise top heavyweight fighters for neglecting to box and just slugging. There is only so much the human body can take.
Ruddock fought a really dumb fight. And Tyson seemed to be fighting on pure viciousness without much sense too.

 

That’s true. I dislike Ferdie Pacheco as well, but Razor Ruddock was indeed a physically gifted, one-dimensional fighter, completely in love with his mule-kicking power. He worked with Floyd Patterson after this when we fought Greg Page and Showtime was continuing to take about Ruddock’s lack of a jab.

Tyson had fallen in love with his power too and was getting flack as well for it. It was the subject of a cover issue of Sports Illustrated at the time, an article where Emanuel Steward said Tyson’s decline at a young age was predictable due to style.

https://www.si.com/longform/2015/1985/tyson/img/cover9.jpg

http://static.boxrec.com/1/18/91Jul.jpg

 

No, today's fight crews are much worse. They would spend a lot of time cheerleading the house fighter and/or going off on irrelevant tangents about a fighter's relationship with his new trainer or the prefight build-up or whatever. And they'd throw in (usually inane or vacuous) commentary from a charismatic ex-champion--Paulie Malignaggi being a huge exception

 

I was never a big fan of The Fight Doctor in general, but I don't recall having a problem with the way he called this fight, when I rewatched it a couple years ago. I don't think this had anything to do with "the Ali shadow." Tyson's loss against Douglas had shattered the invincible Tyson persona and some of his bad habits in the ring were becoming more and more pronounced. Nothing wrong with pointing that out, especially since damn near every person watching the fight was probably wondering whether or not Tyson would be able to rise back to the top and reassert his dominance in the division. If I recall correctly, Percheco did a good job of diagnosing their technical problems, from Ruddock's sloppy defense to Tyson's lack of head movement and combination punching.

 

Ferdie could be good too. I remember the night he called Azumah Nelson's KO of Jeff Fenech down in Austraila about 10 seconds before it happened. Then he went on to have One of the most entertaining interviews with Azumah Nelson.

 

They cheerleaded house fighters in those days too. Jim Lampley is one of the most obvious. Showtime had a better boxing team than HBO

 

My favorite commentator is that one guy that's been added to old loads of the old fight films.

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Who is this guy?