Donovan Ruddock vs. Evander Holyfield in Q1 '91

They've always fought the fights in the ring and not on paper for a reason. :good How often have guys lost to opponents they're ostensibly "way too good for" or seemingly a class or two above?

Again, I'm not picking Ruddock here but I can't accept Holyfield as out of his league. Maybe in terms of ATG standing and overall curriculum vitae, but not in terms of a h2h match-up where tangibles and styles don't provide Holyfield anywhere near the enormous favor that simply looking to his "level" relative to Ruddock's does.

What style-wise makes a Holyfield stoppage jump out at you? :think He'll throw and land more, yes - but what shot(s) do you see getting the chore done? Ruddock could of course be damaged with a halfway decent touch by those with serious heavyweight power - but seeing as Holyfield didn't have that, how does he do it? Just accumulation? Going from body to head?

 

:good

 

It has? :huh

I did a perfunctory search before making this...

 

Ah, I see now. I was too narrow in my criteria.

I did a search of instances of "Donovan Ruddock" in titles in the Classic Forum, and then scanned the results for poll threads.

There have been about half a dozen topics made on this match-up over the years but all but one neglected to create a poll. That one didn't use his full name (in fact it appears nowhere in any of the replies, either) referring to him simply as "Razor Ruddock".

So if proper names were used (and why not use proper names?) and polls added (why not include a poll with any hypothetical match-up?) then all the repetition could be avoided. :good

 

Nice counterpoint to a lot of the group-think going on in here. :good

I'm hard-pressed to see either stopping the other, but if anyone is going to be singing a lullaby to his opponent I'd wager on Ruddock too. :nod

In descending order of likelihood: Holyfield points, Ruddock points, Ruddock KO, Holyfield KO. IMHO. More distance between options 3 & 4 than between 1 & 2 or 2 & 3.

 

Have you seen that match? :roll:

Do you know the circumstances behind it?

Wladimir Klitschko got stopped by Ross Purritty - he must be pretty lousy h2h then, eh?

 

Well you're clearly a master rhetorician. Thou hast conquered, Galilean.

 

Let's recap all that you have taught me thus far.


Wladimir is a joke, and the Jaco result in and of itself precludes Ruddock from mention in any h2h pairings with contemporary top heavies.

I look forward to more of your scholarly insights. I am but a sponge - a humble and grateful vessel.