George Foreman(1991) vs. Razor Ruddock(1991)

The problem with Ruddock ( and many observers commented on this at the time, ) was that he was a slow starter who was also prone to getting decked early.. His fight with a thoroughly shot Bonecrusher gave us a glimps of this.. Smith was an aged fighter who was inactive going into that match and probably 20 lbs over his best weight.. He hadn't recorded a win in nearly 3 years. A slow moving hitter was able to penetrate Ruddock's defense and deck him early. Now for the record, I was shocked when Lewis beat him as quickley as he did, and in fact, had favored Ruddock, but looking back I'm not so surprised anymore.. A fast starting boxer/puncher in his prime with the kind of size,skill and power that Lewis posessed was always going to be bad news for a relatively slow starter like Ruddock.

There is one other major factor that no one has considered. Ruddock's signature punch was his left uppercut, and Lewis systematically destroyed men who relied heavily on the left hand througout his career. This fight was always going to be a stylistic nightmare for Donoven Ruddock

 

I think a lot of people used the Ruddock fight as an arguement that Lewis would destroy Riddick Bowe, and I think thats way off base myself especially after went down against Frank Bruno after.

 

Tyson was a very fast starter and hit Ruddock hard and often. Ruddock got up from those shots and recouped quite well, in both fights really. Ruddock got up from a massive counterhook in the 5th I believe of the first fight.
I think he was probably up for the Lewis fight just as much physically and mentally but it seemed his legs couldnt get him past that first righthand that dropped him at the end of the first.

 

You might have a point, but I think you know as well as I do that that win really shook the boxing world, and even had many of the experts having doubts about Bowe's ( or Holyfield's ) chances.. It certainly had an impact on Rock Newman. In fact, I distinctly remember hearing prior to Lewis-Ruddock, that the winner of that match would likely be favored over the winner of Holyfield-Bowe regardless of where the cards fell.

 

That might very well be the case.. I don't know how strong his legs were nor how well his ability to regain his equallibreum was when contrasted between 1991 and 1992. What I DO think as that the kinds of shots that Lewis tagged him with had a different type of velocity than the kind that Tyson used to deck him. Lewis was a tall rangy fighter who launched those bombs from a different angle than Tyson, and that might have had something to do with it, along with the exact areas of Ruddock's head that each man landed on. Its also worth mentioning that Tyson historically had increased difficulty stopping some of his larger opponents, whereas Lewis tended to eat big men up with little difficulty on most occasions.

I am not totally disregarding the possibility that Ruddock may have diminished some by the Lewis fight, but the problem I have with the claim is that it seems to have derived from fan skepticism that Lewis could not possibly dispatch a common opponent in far more decisive fashion than Tyson, with no real evidence to support it.. I've been hearing the same argument for nearly two decades, and it doesn't seem to have evolved beyond pure speculation. Incidentally, I remember watching ESPN Top Rank Boxing about a week prior to that fight. Both Barry Tomkins and Al Bernstein picked Lewis to win, and neither man said anything about basing their prediction on the premise that Ruddock had declined.

 

What about the Morrison fight then? The Tyson shot is at the end of the 5th around 5:13 in slowmo. It was a hell of a shot

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ho58wD5NK5I&feature=related[/ame]

 

I think we just cleared up the difference. The shot that Tyson decked him with in the film clip you posted, was a glancing left hook to the cheek.. In the first knockdown of the Lewis fight, shown at 2:56, Lennox hit him with a flush right hand on the temple, coming from above. Although I obviously didn't feel any of those shots myself, they certainly appear to be more on the money on film. Lewis then decked him twice in the second round with similar punches. You mentioned earlier that Ruddock seemed to have more trouble recovering against Lewis than against Tyson, but frankly I don't see it.. He rose from the first two knockdowns and appeared ready to re-engage him without any visible unsteadiness in the legs.... Ruddock also appears to be more aggressive against Lewis than he was in the Tyson fight - perhaps accounting for why he got himself into trouble earlier...I don't know....

As for your question about the Morrison fight, can you please restate it? I'm not sure what your asking.


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nhiIvcHvtk[/ame]

 

How about this monstrous flush bomb in the 4th round of the rematch:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_J_0z4XhfPg&feature=related[/ame]

7:40-8:10 Replayed in slowmo from various angles & commentated upon.
That thing was atomic, it broke Ruddock's jaw (Source: Sports Illustrated), I doubt Lewis hit him that hard.

 

This poetic scenario of Foreman shitting in people like Cooney's faces has put a horrible image in my mind. I can just hear the legendary commentators of old commenting on it ! Harry Carpenter - "Never,in all my years of boxing,have I seen anything more disgraceful than this....George is literally dumping on Cooney..." Reg Gutteridge - "I've seen it all now...blimey..." And last,but not least,Howard Cossell - "And after knocking him out...Foreman's squatting over Cooney...he's squatting over Cooney.....this is all in a day's work......Down go Foreman's shorts......down go Foreman's shorts..."

 

Jim Lampley - " It is unclear at this particular point in time, as to what George Foreman is doing, but it would appear as though he his preparing to defecate on Gerry Cooney.. In all your years Larry have you ever seen anything like this? Larry Merchant - " No not exactly jim, this appears to be an old Texas ritual that may have been applied at the Alamo. "

 

:good I can hear Barry McGuigan's voice getting higher and higher,as he comments on it.

 

Of course he believed he was going to be the next champ. Boxing like any sport or business is not going to convey any negative news to the public until after the fact. Mike Tyson was regarded despite the Douglas loss as "the man" in the division. Holyfield was "babysitting his belts" at that time. So when Ruddock emerged from 2 Tyson fights where he gave a decent account of himself, he was respected. After all neither Holyfield, Bowe or Foreman wanted him at that time.

Fighter can get ruined after a serious beating from a lethal puncher. Their punch resistance can go, sometimes its physical sometimes its mental.

Offensively Ruddock should have been sharp enough offensively to compete with Lennox. He simply wasn't talented enough to beat Lewis, who by the way, is a great fighter.

I mean Trinidad ruined Mayorga, Margarito ruined Cotto, Pavlik ruined Taylor, Chavez ruined Taylor, etc...

In boxing that happens...But to suggest that Ruddock didn't lose a bit of his punch resistance then I simply have to disagree.

 

Regardless of what the truth actually was, we have no evidence to support that he was any less of a fighter from a physical or mental standpoint, and frankly I don't think it matters. Even if Ruddock had experienced some decline in the course of one fight and 16 months, I have serious doubts that it would have made the difference between getting his ass kicked in two rounds, and turning the tables at 180 degrees to completely win the fight. He showed up in awesome physical shape for the Lewis fight and looked both focus and lively in that first round. He rose from two very flush knockdown punches in the same way that he had done before against both Tyson and Smith.. Bottom line, Ruddock did not have the style to beat Lewis. He was constantly lunging forward in an effort to land some of those lethal lefts, resulting in Lewis simply taking a step back and countering with the right. So suppose he was able to take just a tad more punishment 16 months earlier? What would be your proposed outcome then? That Ruddock would withstand a relentless beating for 10 rounds, until the right opportunity came about to land a single big shot that would have ended the fight, the way that Foreman did against Moorer? As we both know based on the example I just gave, its certainly possible but not a probable outcome. In any event, I'm not willing to change the outcome of history in my mind based on an interview 10 years after the fact, where Razor claimed " that he wasn't the same. " If excuses gave us the means to change an outcome, then not only would George Foreman have beaten Muhammad Ali, but his body would have needed to be shipped back to the states in a box...

 

I wouldnt call that a glancing blow, but nonetheless Lewis also landed a bomb on Ruddock, and to the top of his head. I still think Ruddock was a bit depleted. As to Morrison, he pretty much hit Ruddock the same way Tyson did, and he was pretty frozen on his feet, which seemed to be the case a little less with Lewis going into the rest and next round. I dont really want to try and diminish Lewis win, like you said, it took the boxing world by surprise, but I never thought Lewis was the beast that he was portrayed as from that fight, and a more Lewis like performance followed against Bruno, which put things in proper perspective in my eyes.
Phil Jackson was a nothing fighter for me, a manufactured contender who I saw get beat up a lot in the gyms down here in Miami. I knew he was going to get killed by Lewis.

 

Point made.


To be fair, I never said that I thought Ruddock would beat Lewis. In fact quite the opposite. But what I am saying is that Lewis beating him in 2 rounds suggests that maybe there is truth to the argument that the Tyson fights took something out of him; namely his punch resistance.

Styles make fights, Lewis would have always beaten him but I think a more durable Ruddock would have lasted longer than 2 rounds.