Sonny Liston vs Razor Ruddock

The best version of Ruddock was probably the one that moved well and had a razor like jab; that guy has a pretty good shot with Liston. Alas, Donovan ditched the silliness of boxing skills and chose to plod- and he really plodded, unlike Joe Louis who is said to have plodded by dingbats and lunatics- with his weight on his left foot looking for a hook that everybody knew he was going to throw.
That would give him problems with Liston, a big man in his own right. Liston would hit him with right hands and beat him to the punch with hooks.

 

Ruddock gets pole-axed by the 3rd round. And that's even the Ruddock who used to have a very fine jab.

 

I have a soft spot for Liston. His story has always interested me. I feel bad for him that he accomplished something in life and wasn't really accepted by anyone.

Having said that, I don't know where to rank him. The truth is, he blew away an overmatched Patterson who was really a smaller man fighting in a division he didn't really belong in. That's not Liston's fault of course, he did what he was supposed to do. Other than that you have two tainted fights against Ali that I'm suspicious as to whether they were on the level. He fought on, and was KO'ed by Leotis Martin....

At that point he appeared to be a shell and could have been much older than the age that is stated. So it's hard to know just how good he really was.... His whole life was a mystery and I don't really know what to make of him and I don't know how to compare him to any other champions throughout history.

 

This will be ugly ... real ugly.

 

Ruddock goes for it but finds himself at the bad end of a beating.
I'm gonna say either wide unanimous points loss or late ko.

 

This logic simply doesn't work in boxing and has been disproven time and time again. Liston was much much better inside than Tyson which would be absolutely crucial in this match-up, and was a superior adapter. He would notice in the first opening seconds Ruddock's telegraphed from left field "smash", and make him pay for it.

 

Aye. Liston had good anticipation defensively too imo for a thickset man who lacked speed. Very sharp at subtly catching/picking off and slipping punches too, for a heavyweight. Hard to see him not picking off/avoiding Razor's best punches while landing consistent heavy leather of his own. He was stronger and a better infighter than Tyson.

 

There's also the fact that Liston hit harder (if not as fast as) Mike. Ruddock didn't have such a great chin.

 

Patterson could easily have spent his career as a LHW with a nice set of abs.

I think Liston pole-axes Ruddock similar to Lewis, unless Ruddock gets lucky and lands a perfect hookercut first.

 

I went with Liston. I think the 84” jab with all that power behind it, coupled with Ruddock’s average defense might be the key here. Not that I’d expect it to be an easy night though