Joe Frazier Circ 1973V Razor Ruddock?

It's a tougher fight on paper than it would be in reality. Frazier is gonna be on Ruddock chest 95% of the time. Digging to the body and landing his solid lefthook quite often.
Joe may not stop Razor but he may set a record for knockdowns depending on the referee. Ruddock had awful balance and left himself wide open when he telegraphed his smash.
Razor has some heart and he may get up laughing but its gonna be a lopsided scorecard.

 

I think the Frazier from Mathis to FOTC ends up chopping Ruddock down.

It's true though, Ruddock did have an amazing hookercut, and that would have presented a mighty challenge for Joe. The problem is, RR really did over-rely on that punch, to ridiculous proportions. Frazier relied on his hook, but he also had a great body attack and could fight inside really well. Ruddock often had trouble landing the big shots.

I always thought, if RR had landed those hookercuts more often on Mike, Tyson might have been stopped. Mike still had a very good defense at that time. He did get rocked hard several times.

 

Highly reccomend checking those fights out again. You'll probably like what you see.

I think Joe looked best post-Foreman in that Quarry fight.

 

Ya, I do think Joe gets underrated after he lost to Foreman. They always say Joe was gone after the FOTC, and while I agree, I would place Bugner and Quarry II among his best performances, particularly when it comes to body punching.

 

In full agreement, my friend.

 

Rudduck early or Frazier late. Rudduck was a bomber who probably hit as hard as Foreman. He looked quicker than Foreman too but didn't have the same workrate.

 

I would call the '72 to '75 years post-prime for Frazier. I would call his peak '66 to '71, but he still had good wins after his prime, like we have already established. Frazier was still dangerous after the FOTC, otherwise he wouldn't have floored and beat the durable Joe Bugner, stopped Quarry who was coming off the high of two of his best wins of all time, and gone on to give Ali two more tough fights, particularly Manila of course, where he gave the worlds' top heavyweight hell and nearly won back the title. Sure the Stander and Daniels fights were unimpressive, he lost to Foreman an underdog, and was outpointed significantly in MSG in the Super Fight II, and he looked sluggish in Ellis II, and was easily stopped by Foreman in the Battle of the Gladiators, but he was in no way a wash-up, just post-prime.

 

Well...I know this is an extremely unpopular opinion, but I just can't see Foreman lasting against the Frazier of the FOTC. When Frazier was a motivated as he was in that fight he was practically unstoppable imo.

A lot of my theory has to do with having watched that fight dozens of times and being blown away by Joe's fierce determination. I think only Holyfield and Lyle had that kind of determination against George, the former won and the other lost mostly because he ran out of gas. Joe wouldn't run out of gas. I think both George and Joe would go down, but Joe would outlast prime George like Ali (but having landed more punishing blows). FOTC Joe in 8 against Foreman.

 

I partially agree. Frazier was literally the perfect and invincible fighter that night. However, I have always thought that a good slugger like George would always take out a great pressure fighter. I would give George a chance vs. FOTC Frazier, but I'l call it 50/ 50. You're not weird. The Fight CIty ranked Frazier's performance in the FOTC the greatest of all time, and I agree.