Was Donovan Ruddock really ruined by Tyson?

Agree, I was never all that impressed by Ruddock, he had size and power but little else. I cringed when he was trying to throw lead uppercuts at Tyson from the outside and left his jab in the dressing room.

 

Man, what killed him against Tyson was he would score with a good shot but not bring his damn hands back. Tyson would take his big single wind ups and bomb him with a combo. If he could bring his hands back or put a combo together, he could have had a chance in those matches. Thought I will say this, no way in hell he was getting a point win over Tyson, when they had that Evander fight lined up..though it didn't happen as we know.

 

In "The Inner Ring" by Rudy Gonzalez, Tyson supposedly caught Ruddock negotiating with Don King in Mike's office before their rematch. Tyson was genuinely pizzed because King brought Ruddock to Mike Tyson Enterprises. If you look back around this time, Tyson was thisclose to leaving King to go with Harold What's his name. Shady stuff going down.

Gonzalez writes that Tyson knocked Ruddock out with one punch inside the building, and Tyson's bodyguard, Anthony, knocked out one of Ruddock's bodyguards, one of The Twins. Anthony and Rudy got Tyson out of there before the cops showed up. Tensions were at their peak between Tyson and King.

Anyways, Ruddock could've won on points, especially with King's shenanigans. Yeah, but no way in hell Ruddock was beating Tyson anyways because the Tyson who prepared for Ruddock in 1991 looked the best since Michael Spinks.

 

Some fighters recover from their first loss and some don’t. Psychologically I don’t think he ever recovered from Tyson. You gave your all, everything you had and lost. Twice.