Was Mike Tyson Prime against Razor Ruddock?

no. i dont think he was far out of his peak though. he was just wreckless at that point. still elite though

 

That Tyson would have given anyone problems at the time. Anyone. Too bad Tyson was around then or The Razor would have been the best of that generation and could have beaten anyone. Tyson was all Razor ever had on his mind though. After those 2 fights, I think he lost his true desire, hence his losses to Lewis and Tommy. Even in his newest youtube videos from a year or so ago, he mentions the K-Bros, but he always goes back to Tyson. If he hadn't of fought Tyson before Lewis, I think that fight would have looked a lot different. He still would have had his nemesis.

 

physical prime, yes

but his skills weren't up to prime standards

 

his skills had faded at that point it was not the same tyson 1985-1988

 

:deal

His mentality was hardly a problem either. It was his neglect for defense that had made him damn near unhittable with clean shots at his peak. Tyson by '91 strikes me as a guy absolutely boiling over inside at the embarrassment he suffered in Tokyo and responding by becoming even more arrogant than he'd ever been. He still threw vicious body shots (something non-existant after prison) but it felt like he was out to prove a point with Ruddock and ate some serious bombs, probably a lot harder than anything Douglas tagged him with and just walked through him despite being the significantly smaller man. The whole series reads as a big **** You. But it's the type of approach that will strip your physical being pretty quickly.

 

He looked great in the 1st ruddock fight...........but in the 2nd ruddock fight ruddock hit tyson with 123 out of 246 punches thats 50%.......but then again if you divid that into 12 rds ...ruddock was only nailing tyson 10 punches a rd..........and throwing 20 thats fuk all

 

Physically he was very much prime, and he had the hunger back that had been lacking for a while. But the Ruddock fights did expose one or two flaws in his style that had cropped up.

 

Excellent post.

 

Ruddock took BOMBS in that second fight

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcVJVvDTJeo&feature=player_embedded[/ame]

I think that fight truly took a lot out of both (as did the first one)

Ruddock's defense was worst than Mikes in both fights

Mike was still throwing combos at this point although his defense was clearly subpar

 

Of course he was in his prime.

He just happened to come up against a fit,strong,determined young fighter.

Everyones amazing until they come up against a guy that can take their punches and fight back.

 

What's amazing is that in watching the Ruddock fights, you see a lot of false claims about Tyson go flush down the toilet. Wasn't he supposed to cave in when Ruddock stood his ground and fought back? He beat the **** out of this man.



Sunday June 30th, 1991
Ron Borges
Boston Globe

LAS VEGAS - Donovan "Razor" Ruddock had nothing to say yesterday morning about his latest loss to Mike Tyson. That's because his broken jaw was wired shut, and will remain so for six weeks.

Ruddock sustained not only his second straight defeat to Tyson at the Mirage, but a physical beating one normally absorbs in a back alley.

By the time Ruddock heard the news that he had lost a unanimous 12-round decision, his lower lip was leaking blood and his left cheek was so swollen he bore a disturbing resemblance to the tobacco-filled jaw of old Chicago White Sox second baseman Nellie Fox. None of those conditions improved after Ruddock heard judges Dalby Shirley and Art Lurie had scored the foul-marred bout 114-108 for Tyson, while Chuck Giampa had it 113-109.

Of course, had Tyson not had three points deducted for low blows (to one for Ruddock) by referee Mills Lane, the scorecards would have been as lopsided as the side of Ruddock's face.

"Donovan `Razor' Ruddock is not a sore loser," said Ruddock's promoter, Murad Muhammad, as he tried to explain his fighter's absence from yesterday's press debriefing. "He is, in fact, sore.

"He went without my knowledge to the hospital. They found out a little part of his jaw is broken. Right now, Donovan `Razor' Ruddock is in the hospital.

"His jaw is being set. His eye is puffed. Of course, his hands hurt a little bit. But he never complains about his body. He just can't understand, with the punching power he has, how Mike Tyson took those shots. We salute Mike Tyson today as the best heavyweight in the world."

After he lost 14 of the 19 rounds he has fought with Tyson, that would seem to be a minimum concession on Ruddock's part. Although Tyson's critics continued to maintain - after he had battered Ruddock's rib cage and snapped his mandible in the course of knocking him down twice - that the former champion at 25 is no longer the fearsome fighter he was at 21, he seemed to have been more than enough for Ruddock.

To be honest, that would seem to be true for anyone else in the heavyweight division at the moment, at least in Tyson's opinion.

"In all reality, I'm the champion," Tyson said. "The belts are just a symbol. I've said I want to fight heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield many times. I was entitled to his first defense but I didn't get it. He knows he can't beat me. I know he can't beat me."

Certainly, it is now clear Ruddock can't beat him. Ruddock spent most of the evening hurling wild punches at Tyson that hurt the former champion on several occasions but failed to wobble him.

Meanwhile, Tyson dropped Ruddock in the second and fourth rounds with straight right hands to the jaw that came as counters to Ruddock's powerful left hooks.

"I knew he'd get up (from the knockdowns). They were like flash knockdowns. They never really hurt him," Tyson said. "He rocked me, too, but I didn't feel it until this morning. I feel like I got beat up by 20 guys."

 

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwnZ3VkXYCE&feature=youtube_gdata_player"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwnZ3VkXYCE&feature=youtube_gdata_player[/ame]

 

:good

 

I'd hope so. He's my favorite fighter ever.