Lewis Vs Ruddock: At the Time

I was way off on this one. I had Ruddock by KO4. I had a gut feeling that Lewis' chin might not be the best...based on nothing more than a hunch at the time, and I thought Ruddock would eventually land that left. My Brother wrote his prediction on a piece of paper, and told us not to open it until after the fight. He nailed it with Lewis by KO2. I don't recall who was the betting favorite in that one though.

 

I was the opposite.

I didn't like but loved Lewis to get the W. Thought he'd stop him at some point during the bout. Everyone was buying into the Tyson results. But Ruddock lost the fights.

As it pertained to the Lewis fight---That terrible jab Ruddock threw was going to be a problem. So was his wide left hook smash. Tyson did not have the reflexes to capitalize on it like in his younger days. I sure thought those same mistakes against Lennox and not a short heavyweight would be his downfall. His defense was not going to be anywhere remotely good enough to deal with the punches Lennox threw.

Absolutely loved the 2-1 odds. Free money.

Also hought Commander vander would have countered Razor to death and Bowe would have outworked him. Not hard to do when Ruddock is only throwing 20 punches a round & 15 are telegraphed.

 

Anyone that went to his fights live saw a guy that was a huge telegrapher. Every one in the arena saw what he was going to do. Long before he did it. He'd been through trainers going into the Lewis bout and went through more trainers after the bout. That is always a big big warning sign.

So he was never going to improve that balance. Or his defense.

 

I was the same, I expected Ruddock to smash Lewis at some point.
Blame it on years of British Heavyweight s failures at the very top level.
But, after this I never doubted Our Lennox again!!

 

I do remember Larry Merchant saying to the audience, "Never trust a fighter whose reputation is built off of two losses!"

 

Ruddock was seen as the puncher and Lewis the boxer.

Whislt Ruddock was favourite, people thought Lennox had a chance, but most only by points win.

 

Ruddock had started working with Floyd Patterson and looked really sharp in beating Phil Jackson in his previous fight. At the time the consensus was if he could give Mike Tyson hell then he’s going to Destory Lewis. Lewis had looked quite average against a very limited Levi Billups on HBO recently and even though he stopped Mike Dixon most thought once Lewis got touched by Razor’s “Smash” it’d be curtains. Obviously we were DEAD WRONG.

 

I was 16 at the time and wanted Lewis to win and I did think he had the advantages going into the fight. Was a little disappointed it was not a good match up.

 

Ruddock was the betting favorite. From what I can find online, it says Ruddock was a 2 to 1 favorite. I was just a kid but I remember a lot of people being unimpressed with Lennox. Perhaps it was some bias against British HWs. USA Tuesday Night Fights had a poll shortly before and asked who would end up on top of the Bowe//Holyfield/Lewis/Ruddock matchups (we expected the winners to face each other) and Lennox was a very distant fourth.

I just remember hearing the result on ESPN before I saw it on HBO and being very surprised.

 

Lewis was getting zero credit for some reason and Ruddock was favourite.
Bookies were offering around 6/4 or 13/8 Lennox.
I had a sizeable punt on Lennox as I also did versus Gary Mason when Lewis was also not the favourite. People were slow to catch on how good LL was. Lewis' mixed heritage meant the media were slow to pick up on him , preferring to champion Frank Bruno .
But for a momentary lapse v McCall and lazy prep v Rahmann , LL should've gone through his career unbeaten.
He had everything.

 

Foreman was one who picked Lewis. I thought Lewis could outbox Ruddock and stop him late. I was amazed at time by the result

 

I watched that fight live Halloween night in 1992 before heading off to a party. I honestly thought Ruddock would win. Especially given that a lot of the recent young contenders like Mercer, Seldon and Morrison had flopped within the last year. I was wrong