Was Donovan Ruddock really ruined by Tyson?

They suffered injuries in those fights but that happens, I don't think he was ruined.

Ruddock blew out the undefeated and rated Phil Jackson right after the Tyson fights, and as I recall was favored to come out on top of the 4 man tournament thing.

Against Lewis it's pretty obvious what happened, he got himself in trouble as he always did but couldn't fall back on his size to wrestle and smother his way out of danger, and got finished.

Ruddock got in trouble early against old Bonecrusher even, that's just what he did. He pushed lady luck too much.

Now after Lewis is when Ruddock took a nose dive as a fighter. He got into that dispute with King, his brother, the night club nonsense, and was out of the ring for almost two years and never recovered.

 

I think a bit of everything really big guy. Ruddock s chin was always a shaky I think. While not the worst it certainly wasn't a tua chin. I was surprised to be honest that he lasted as long as he did with tyson. I think he wasn't a bad fighter at all really. A solid punch on him that got him ranked quite high even though he went a bit trigger happy when he started ko ing guys and threw his jab and defence out of the window. I suppose the two fights with tyson certainly did take something out of him that he never won a really big fight afterwards and of course Lewis got him shortly after that. So I believe not a bad fighter really, hard punching , vulnerable to the big punches. Would have given most heavy s in his prime a tough fight I believe

 

I agree with this.

 

He took some punishment including the broken jaw.

I think what ruined him the most were the Bonecrusher and Dokes fights. He fell in love with his power. Especially that left {smash}. He stopped working to set up that power almost hoping to land a lucky shot. He physically had all the tools a heavyweight could want but mentally he didn`t have the ring IQ to put it all together.

I would have liked to see Floyd Patterson have a little more time to work with Ruddock before putting him in with Lewis or someone elite. He only had two fight Page and Jackson. That`s not enough to really change your style. Against Lennox you could see he still wasn`t natural. He was thinking about what Floyd wanted but it wasn`t flowing like it needs to in the ring against an elite dangerous opponent. That jab to the body? Lewis almost took his head off the he did it again later!

 

He was finished after Lewis. He was maybe slightly past prime going into that fight. He looked fine after Tyson as was mentioned.

 

Don't forget Tyson broke Ruddock's jaw who went to the hospital after the rematch.
What about Golota's carrier and health after only two Tyson rounds.I think the Tyson haters can't accept
Ruddock was shot after Tyson.

 

Dave Jaco ruined him.

 

I also feel that Tyson was slightly past his prime going into the Ruddock fights.

 

It's possible given the terrible beating he took, Ruddock has claimed they both ruined each other in the rematch.

But I don't think Ruddock really looked any different in his next couple of fights against Greg Page and Philip Jackson.

Tyson-Ruddock 2 was a fun brawl. I loved watching Tyson's body attack, particularly round 10. Also that Ruddock Smash at the end of round 6 that sent Tyson's mouthpiece flying.

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I'm glad they went back to calling him "Iron Mike" after calling him "Mighty Mike" here.

 

Rudduck was never any good aside from that one punch. A one trick pony whose trick was easily overcome as his opposition improved.

 

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Does anyone else find it surprising that Ruddock never actually fought for the world title in his career?

 

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Yeah. That's surprising as well as David Tua never having an alphabet title, and only challenging for a world HW title once. He had a lot of wins over future and former title holders

Shows how much connections (Don King) can help.