I've been high on Ruddock for a while now, very interesting persona in and out of the ring. One of my favourite 90s heavies. Anyway, here's a tribute to his vaunted "Smash", a hooking uppercut that produced some of the most chilling knockouts since Joe Louis! [YT]watch?v=rNo8nXD3xoc[/YT]
I love that punch. The Dokes KO is one of my favorites, both beautiful and brutal to watch. The KOs over Smith and Alexander were some highlight reel stuff too. Tyson showed his ability to take bombs when he took that punch at the end of the 6th round of their rematch and his mouthpiece went flying. Tyson just sort of stopped and paused for a second or two, then it seemed he was back to normal. I never saw the Weaver fight, but people have said that Ruddock fell into the trap of falling in love with his power, as he was more of a boxer when he fought Weaver, showing more skills and not the one-dimensional guy who thought his Smash could do everything for him.
I saw the Weaver fight on TV at the time. Yes, Razor boxed very cautiously. He was staggered by Weaver. If he had fought more aggressively he may have stopped Weaver, but he might have been stopped himself. He probably should have used a safer style against Tyson and Lewis, but, like you said, he had long abandoned it.
Watch the video again. It's a weird uppercut/hook hybrid. Threw in a uppercut fashion, but with a slight twist at the end of it. :good
Ruddock was an interesting fighter. He was basically a counterpuncher who didnt like to go forward countered with massive uppercuts and hooks. His jab was ****, and his overall boxing skills were mediocre.
He had a good jab and was dubbed Razor because of it, and he was a boxer and a mover in the beginning of his career, before falling in love with his power.
I still don't know how even the version of him that fought Morrison lost to Tommy .. Razor seemed to be a flakey and not too smart fighter ..
I thought he disguised the punch pretty well. Watch the Dokes KO in slomo...he feints a jab and Dokes fell for it, Razor turning the punch into the Smash...hell of a knockout. Of course Dokes was faded by then but it was a vicious KO nonetheless. How the hell Tyson was able to absorb some of those left hands from Ruddock is amazing to me. For me, the biggest single punch of the 90's...including Tua's left hook.
