true, even if he had become a better boxer, he still had the monumental task of Tyson, Foreman , Holyfield, Bowe and Lewis in front of him
I've never seen Ruddock's early fights, such as the Mike Weaver one, when he was said to be a good boxer. After stopping Smith & nearly killing Dokes, it looked like he was in love with his power and simply did not fight smart. Tyson, like-wise, was in love with his power, or had just gotten lazy as a whole. Less combos, less jabs to set up shots, less head movement. Although he absolutely murdered Ruddock to the body. It definitely would have been interesting. I can see the arguments for both sides.
This is true.Floyd Patterson trained him for a while he tried to get him to use his jab which was decent, but he was smash happy.
Testosterone. That whole fight's promotion was built up around both guys having real knockout power. I remember seeing the poster (actually I think it was the program), which featured Ruddock in one corner and Tyson in another, entitled 'The winner by knockout...' So given that, and of course Tyson's natural viciousness and Ruddock's keenness to get at Tyson, it was inevitable that the fight became exactly what people were anticipating - a brawl. We had two bulls in one kraal and something was going to give. But you know, people say Ruddock should have boxed, but was he good enough in that role to have beaten Tyson? He was a good boxer when he needed to be, but I don't think he had the skill to control a fighter like Tyson the way a Holyfield or Douglas did.
But he actually boxed Smith. I thought he fought very well there, after getting dropped early. He boxed Smith, waited for the veteran to get tired, and then finished him off. Good performance overall.
I heard that he got the nickname Razor because early in his career he had a superb jab that people felt could one day be in the league of Ali or Holmes. Im not disagreeing with you. 2 entertaining and extremely brutal fights. What a chin on Tyson, unbelievable punch resistance. There was a moment I believe in the first bout where Mike was pointing to his chin, like, "hit me harder, you can't dent this chin" and Mike ate so many shots and never got knocked down. Two wars but Ruddock ruined his career possibly the worst strategy. Jab, Lateral movement, uppercut or right hand, clinching, upper echelon chin, thats what you need to have a chance against Tyson. Razor literally went for the smash over and over again. Funny prefight antics between the too. Cracks me up every time Mike saying "I like those big lips I'm gonna make you my girlfriend" and he did.:blurp
It depends. If that`s all a guy can do is punch then I don`t blame them. In Ruddock`s case he had the size, height, agility and quickness to be a great boxer/slugger and set up his punches. Razor was an extreme case in that he plodded forward and threw uppercuts from the outside with one hand basically. When he missed his was so off balance often he went down. Tyson scored a couple of knockdown mostly because Razor was so out of control. Razor Ruddock shouldve been a hell of a lot more than he was.
Well he didnt have to run around the ring or dance but he could have snapped out a jab and dropped some right hands down the middle keeping his opponent off balance would have given him a better chance. Throwing some combos rather than telegraphing one big punch {the same one} over and over. Tyson knew what was coming and he countered the **** of him.
Ruddock said something broke inside him in the first fight and he never felt the same afterwards. Think he meant physically
Something must have broke inside of Tyson in the Douglas fight a year before Ruddock because he was never the same either.. The head movement was gone, the foot work, he was loading up on everything, he lost his mojo after Douglas...