Donovan Ruddock

Donovan Ruddock
Data
Birth Name	Donovan Ruddock
Weight class	Heavyweight
nationality	Canadian
birthday	December 12, 1963
place of birth	St. Catherine
style	Left delivery
size	1.91 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	44
Victories	38
Knockout victories	29
Defeats	5
draw	1

Donovan "Razor" Ruddock (born December 12, 1963 in St. Catherine , Jamaica ) is a former Canadian heavyweight boxer of Jamaican origin. He is often only known by the name Razor Ruddock .

Professional career

Ruddock turned pro in 1982 and initially boxed cautiously, only winning against three of his first nine opponents by knocking out . Against David Jaco in the tenth fight, he suffered an asthma attack and gave up the fight. Although he was only able to land one point win in his fourteenth fight against the aging former world champion Mike Weaver , he gradually managed to use his clout in the ring more effectively.

On July 2, 1989, he won prematurely against James "Bonecrusher" Smith , which Mike Tyson in 1987 had not succeeded. The 1990 knockout against Michael Dokes with his special hit , the left hook, was so devastating that many journalists admitted they were afraid that Dokes was dead.

In 1991 he met Mike Tyson twice , who had sensationally lost his world title to Buster Douglas the year before . It would be the most famous fights of his career. In the first encounter, Ruddock was knocked to the ground by Tyson in the second and third round, but referee Richard Steele stopped the fight too early in the seventh round, according to the prevailing opinion. So a rematch was scheduled, which Tyson won on points. This fight was also extremely controversial, Ruddock had to go down twice (in the second and fourth round), and one point was deducted for beating after the end of the round. Tyson even lost three points for fouls and low blows.

In the fights Ruddock showed that he had a good chin and was in top shape at around 105 kg, but he did not have the boxing resources to either puncture Tyson or at least catch him cleanly with his hook and knock him out. Ruddock then won early against Greg Page and the undefeated Phil Jackson (record 25-0).

After Tyson had to start his prison sentence in 1992 and Evander Holyfield had beaten Buster Douglas and defended the title against, among others, the old masters George Foreman and Larry Holmes , there was an arranged mini-tournament with Holyfield, Riddick Bowe , Lennox Lewis and Ruddock. The winners from the semi-finals should compete against each other, Ruddock was generally considered to be slightly favored over Bowe, Lewis and Holyfield.

Ruddock had signed a new coach with Floyd Patterson and went into the fight against Lewis in 1992 as a 2-1 favorite. He carefully started the fight on the first round with the leading hand. However, Lewis hit with his right punch and Ruddock had to hit the ground heavily. The gong saved him, but after falling twice in the second round, the fight was broken off in favor of Lewis.

Ruddock then took a long hiatus and then fought Tommy Morrison in 1995 . He had Morrison on the ground on the first lap, but later took a direct hit through Morrison's left hook and was knocked out.

He later ended his career with a series of wins against unknown opponents. An offer to box against Vitali Klitschko for the WBO World Championship in 2000 was canceled due to medical problems. Chris Byrd was signed as a replacement . In 2001 he finally ended his career.

comeback

On March 28, 2015, Ruddock started his comeback fight after almost 14 years of inactivity and surprisingly defeated Raymond Olubowale by knockout in the fifth round. During the fight, Ruddock himself had to go down once, but this was probably done by pushing.

Web links

• Donovan Ruddock in the BoxRec database
• Tyson-Ruddock Sportsillustrated