To me that was a horribly premature stoppage. Ruddock was reeling sure, but he had just won the previous round with some dynamite punching, and Steele stopped the fight without even looking in Ruddock's direction. He denied Ruddock the opportunity to defend himself, which was criminal.
I thought that originally but watched it again, and I think it was clear Ruddock was about to be beheaded.
Tyson was an awesome finisher, Ruddock was hurt with one arm behind the rope, so he was open. Im trying to find the link on youtube so we can watch it again, but I cant get on youtube for some reason.
Ron Lipton knows a lot about boxing. I remember reading where he said Ruddock was way out of it, after being completely unconscious before hitting the floor. He also had one of the best lines, one I still remember... "Tommy hits harder than a winter on welfare." Lipton probably knows more about the mechanics than anyone on this forum. He was a few feet from the action. If he chose to stop it, it should have been stopped.
Put the Ruddock who nearly killed Michael Dokes with a left hook in with any version of Morrison & Ruddock would do the business imo!
It ulitmately came down to his horrendous stoppage of the Taylor Chavez fight, with two seconds left. After that if Steele would have stopped a fight with the guy on the ground unconscious it would have been too soon.
The funny thing is, Steele was far more criticized in the press for the Ruddock stoppage than for the Taylor stoppage. I remember a Boxing Illustrated edition with the title 'Did Richard Steele my fight with Tyson?' with a picture of Ruddock on the cover. The article was quite scathing of Steele, who in an interview before the bout, insisted it was a 10 round fight, when it was actually a 12 rounder. Some felt that Steele was jet lagged from refereeing a fight just a few days before, on the other side of the country. I'm not trying to convince anyone, but it's quite an interesting article if anyone gets around to reading it. Anyway, poor old Steele had to live for years afterwards with fight fans shouting "stop the fight Richard!"
I think these things tend to have a " cumulative " factor.. The fact that Richard Steele had already stopped a big super fight once, had extreme baring on the second occasion and especially considering that it was a highly hyped HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE ELIMINATION MATCH...... The whole world had its eyes fixed on the upper tier heavyweights, and was yearning for the resolution of the ongoing drama... The fact that a referee who had previously stopped a big fight, was now stopping an even BIGGER match, was more than the public could handle.......
Had Morrison fought Ruddock earlier, Razor would have kayoed him. Ruddock had been inactive for quite some time when he took on Morrison, and it went back and forth like life and death. While I do believe Morrison to be under-rated in some sense, he wasnt dealing with the man who took on Tyson or Dokes, he took on an out of shape, rusty Ruddock.
I also would like to comment on this... I have always felt that Richard Steele was a great referee. He was well fixed on the action, had a good eye for fouling tactics, and above all else, was concerned for the well being of young fighters. I had always felt ( and still do ), that his stoppage of Taylor vs Chavez was premature.. Let's face it, Meldrick was winning the fight convincingly and there was only seconds left on the clock... i saw the fight live at only 15 years of age. As time past however, I took to heart the words that he mentioned in the post fight interview which were " I am not the time keeper. " In the years that past, I have seen many replays of that fight, as well as read many articles that have regurgitated the events of that evening.. This past year, I watch an episode of legendary nights on HBO. To this day, Richard Steele stands by his decision and still says " no one in the crowd could see the horrible punishment that young man ( Taylor ) was taking. " As I watched the close-ups, I saw Taylor slipping to the canvas at one point. I saw a horribly bloodied face. I saw the blank look in his eyes after he barely rose to his feet, when Steele had asked him if he was able to continue... I remember hearing the medical reports of Taylor being rushed to the hospital for dehydration and severe internal bleeding. I remember hearing about how he was urinating blood for days after the fight......Most of all, I remember how Taylor had severely declined after that evening, and how he was never the same fighter again... Many have blamed his decline on Steele's decision to " deprive " him of a career defining win... I think it was something else. Although, he definately should have won that match, the beating that he took would have arguably ruined even the very best of great champions.......
I always believed that myself, until I heard referee Ron Lipton say that he saw one of Ruddock's pupils grossly dilated, while the other eye looked normal. That's evidence of some scary injury. I think Lipton made the right choice.