by James Slater – It seems there is a good chance we can add the name of one Donovan “Razor” Ruddock to the long list of former, top-ranked heavyweights who are unable to leave the sport for good. According to the almost always accurate Boxrec.com, the Canadian big man who lit up the heavyweight division back in the late 1980s and early 1990s is to return to action on October 2nd in Atlanta, Georgia..
Ruddock, now aged 46 and inactive since October of 2001, will apparently face a TBA in a scheduled six-rounder. According to Boxrec, the card Razor will appear on will also feature names like Gabe Brown, also a heavyweight, and light-welter Tyrese Hendrix in action. It will surely be the Ruddock fight that gets the lion’s share of fan attention that night, though – if for nothing other than reasons of curiosity.
Ruddock, 37-5-1(28), left the sport with a 10th-round stoppage win over fellow Canadian Egerton Marcus back in late 2001, and it seemed he had called it a day for good. Best known for his wars with Mike Tyson (who Razor met twice – losing a controversial 7th-round TKO the first time, a wide UD points loss the second), his wins over Mike Dokes and James “Bonecrusher” Smith, and his stoppage losses to Lennox Lewis and Tommy Morrison, Ruddock called it quits nine years ago, and reinvented himself as an actual inventor.
Launching upon the public, “The Smash” – a remarkable trash compactor named after his once fearsome uppercut/hook hybrid – Ruddock had found a life after boxing. However, it looks like Razor has either – A: had a returned desire to fight again, or B: has a financial need to return to the ring. It’s impossible to know for sure, just as it’s impossible to know what kind of shape the Canadian is in.
Back in his prime, Razor never got as far as challenging for the world title, and it’s a massive long shot his planned comeback will ever alter that fact. Still, if he has retained his once withering power, Ruddock could at least make a few interesting fights at a lower level.
In his heyday, Razor weighed in at a solid and powerful 230-pounds or so, and even in his last fight, against Marcus, Ruddock was in good physical condition. But that was a long time ago, and it’s reasonable to assume the man who burst onto the world stage with that frightening 4th-round KO of former champ Dokes will come in at around 250 or more in October (if the return actually happens).
In joining fellow veteran heavyweights like Bert Cooper, Evander Holyfield and Riddick Bowe and Tommy Morrison ( both guys often being reported as wanting to have at least one more fight) as forty-somethings unable to retire to fulltime safety, Ruddock will either intrigue or appal the fans. Who knows though, we may even get to see some once talked of heavyweight match-ups from the 90’s take place a decade-plus too late!
Ruddock-Bowe, Ruddock-Cooper or Ruddock-Morrison II, anyone!?