Lewis Vs Ruddock: At the Time

I was also impressed with Ruddock against Phil Jackson. He started to be more patient and technical, putting focus on his jab and throwing combos out of it. The last knockdown was when he feinted a jab but turned it into a hook, which was quite impressive.

 

Exactly!! Jackson was like 25-0, if memory serves at the time and he had looked solid in a few appearances on Tuesday Night Fights. I was obsessed with Ruddock he was my favorite Heavyweight on the scene at that point. From the moment he got into the ring against Lewis, something was off, his body language was all wrong. I don’t know if it was Lewis, the European crowd or just that the moment got the better of him, but he seemed jittery and nervous. And then he laid his head out there on a platter for Lewis to knock clean off. I was stunned.

 

Ruddock was favored. lewis had no# faced high level of comp, Aged Weaver and faded Biggs were his bigges# wins.

 

I agree. He really looked agitated before the fight. It seems that he burned a lot of energy trying to "impress" Lewis.
I read that he was fighting jet lag, but every time he is interviewed about that fight, he refuses to speak about it. In the post fight interview, he mentionned being "not warm enough" and basically being caught cold (literally and metaphorically).
And yes, Jackson earned a reputation of a big puncher and was ranked by the WBC in the top 10. Maybe Ruddock should have more fights between Jackson and Lewis to adapt to the new style inculcated by Patterson. Georges Foreman rightly underlined that he was stuck between being a boxer and a puncher.

 

Ruddock wasn’t just expected to beat Lewis, he was many pundits pick to then go on and beat Holyfield for the title (he was a narrow favorite to defend against Bowe).
The conventional wisdom was that Bowe and Lewis would both bounce back and be the next era, but that both fights were too soon for them.
Of course, absolutely none of it played out that way.

 

I watched the fight live at a friends house UK time it was and im guessing 2am time, near 3am maybe?

The people behind LL, believed in hin fight staged UK but timing for North American TV.

 

That was Lewis’s big breakthrough and sadly the end of Ruddock as a top fighter, funnily enough if it was Lewis post-McCall the majority would be going with Ruddock to knock him out.

 

Ruddock was overrated after two losses to the no-longer-dominant Tyson, and Lewis made his first career milestone.
Lewis Vs. Ruddock is a masterpiece on par with Lewis Vs. Golota.