Donovan Ruddock vs. Evander Holyfield in Q1 '91

In early 1991, shortly after Evander Holyfield cut short the miracle reign of Buster Douglas to become world heavyweight champion, Donovan Ruddock - then on a five year streak going a perfect 15-0 with thirteen knockouts - made serious attempts to get a crack at him. Holyfield instead defended against comebacking Big George Foreman - fifteen years Ruddock's senior and retired for the first time while Ruddock was still in high school in Toronto (dreaming of a different path of athletic stardom, then a promising young tennis player). Ruddock himself went on to run into the vengefully resurgent Iron Mike Tyson, in what ended up being his last ring outings before prison and two of his toughest until then besides the Buster Douglas shock in Tokyo.

What if fate had wended its course toward a meeting between The Razor and The Real Deal in early '91 rather than sending them off to separately engage the pair of household name powerhouses?


The cruiser turned heavy king at the height of his fairy tale versus perhaps the most feared and respected contender of the day.

 

I kind of figured Holyfield would be the fashionable pick - especially with the added benefit of hindsight.

In that day, it may have been seen as more of a pick'em.

Holyfield was 28-0 (22) and Ruddock was 25-1-1 (18.)

Holyfield enjoyed that excellent run at cruiser (Qawi x2, DeLeon, Tillman, Ocasio & Parkey - in all 6-0 with five knockouts in world championship tilts, four of those unification and the last a complete unification involving all three major organizations...enough to be considered the #1 all time at cruiser by widespread acclamation...) and got off to a decent start upon moving up by stopping all seven men he faced and none of them slouches...but, Ruddock would've been the best HW opponent in his career as of then.

Ruddock had only two blemishes - a draw with tomato can Phil Brown and the shock TKO loss to giant super-heavy "palooka" David Jaco. Both were early on when he was green & scrawny and the latter has the added legitimate excuse of having been caused by Ruddock gassing after suffering a fit of asthma in the middle of the contest. He didn't have the # of quality W's that Holyfield did, but he did have a few (Weaver, Bonecrusher, Dokes) on a similar level to most of Holyfield's - in his new division, anyway. In fact, contrasting outcomes with their h2h opponent in common: Holyfield did impressively dispatch the former champ, making him do a chicken dance with plenty of clock left in the increasingly one-sided 10th...but Dokes was technically stopped while standing, only slumping to his knees after Richard Steele had jumped in. Ruddock on the other hand, a year later would knock Dokes out cold in the 4th.

Ruddock had spent the previous five years packing on muscle and gaining his man-strength and improving technically, no longer the gawky low-mileage kid who underwent a spotty learning curve in the early 80's. He didn't have a sparkling resume but looked very impressive and was hailed as perhaps the uncrowned king. (remember, in the first quarter of 1991 hardly anybody yet knew who Lennox Lewis was and Tyson had already been dethroned and lost his aura of invincibility despite rallying back with consecutive KO1 returns to form. Holyfield looked formidable in his 88-90 run, but did seem to have lost a bit of power and certainly wouldn't have been considered heavy enough a hitter to bang with Ruddock or perhaps even consistently get his respect. The seven straight stoppages didn't tell the entire story. Quick Tillis had already been knocked out a bunch of times by then. Holyfield never even dropped him, forcing him to ultimately quit on his stool. Likewise he battered Pinklon Thomas but never put him in even remote jeopardy of leaving his feet - another retirement, by the corner. Alex Stewart was halted on cuts. That leaves the aforementioned Dokes, fragile Rodrigues, unheralded McDonagh and the no-longer-motivated-or-fit Cinderella man Buster Douglas. With each outing the critics murmured with increasing concern that he wouldn't be able to hold off Tyson when they eventually had their anticipated big-money showdown. He didn't appear to even have the requisite pop to get rid of guys whom you wouldn't expect lots of heavies to be able to get rid of. Ruddock did. Even if Holyfield was favored to beat him on points had something materialized, the predominant view was sure to have been that Ruddock was in with a huge puncher's chance - not just a nominal one.

Of course, from our vantage it's easy to point to Ruddock getting decked several times over his 19 rounds with Tyson and to Holyfield vaulting into success against household names Foreman, Cooper, and Holmes before starting his epic rivalry with Bowe and therefore conclude that Holyfield was in better form during that period - but really, would the version Ruddock who twice lost to Kid Dynamite (albeit not without some argument, very game in both tries) have fared all that poorly against the Holyfield who gave up a few rounds to a couple of 42-year old former greats, both of whom rocked him soundly a few times...and who needed to hammer the not-quite-chinny but not-quite-rocksteady Bert Cooper with almost nonstop uppercuts in laboring towards stopping him? :think I'm not sure their performances in that era clearly point to Holyfield being the hands-down better operator at the weight.

I'm not saying Holyfield isn't the right pick - but people might be making snap decisions and not putting adequate thought into this, which it duly merits IMO.

 

:roll:

Thinking it wouldn't be a competitive match with the outcome set on a the spin of a weather**** is as foolish as would be thinking Ruddock would blitz him in two minutes. :good