By KUNLE AWOSIYAN
Ron Lyle, Earnie Shavers and Donovan Ruddocks were great boxers that had got the capacity to rule the world, unfortunately they could not.
These three had something in common. They were big, they were hard punchers but they were underachievers.
Lyle became a strong force in 1976, when he knocked down George Foreman thrice in a slugfest of six falls that ended in a victory for the big George.
He came out of prison to embrace boxing. Lyle was a warrior, an athlete of immense energy that would have beaten any of the boxers of this era easily.
But because he competed at a period boxing was more of a mind game than politics and money, when boxing was for the most resilient, Lyle contested for championship but could not win a belt.
Shavers is regarded as the hardest puncher of all time. He was the first man to knock down Larry Holmes, yet he lost the fight.
Ruddock’s power was noticed when he knocked out former WBA champion, James Smith in 1989 and in 1990 he dispatched Michael Dokes and Greg Page in 1992 in spectacular manner. He created fear in the ring with his left hooks.
For Joshua, the Briton easily exhausts his stamina trying to knockout his opponent. Many believe he has no good chin, I do not agree. He has taken some big blows, yet he survived except that from Ruiz.
He stood toe-to-toe against Iron Mike Tyson at a time no boxer was ready to enter the ring with the baddest man on earth. Though he lost on the two occasions against Tyson, Ruddock’s uppercuts caught Tyson severally in their second match.
After the fight, it was Tyson who walked up to Ruddock to shake his hand for giving him the real fight.
The knockout rate of these three boxers stands between 75 and 80 per cent. As a matter of fact, Ruddock had 47 fights, won 40 with 30 of it as knockouts, he had six loses and one draw.
Unfortunately, these three never became world champion. Lyle contested for championship against Mohammad Ali but he lost.
Shavers and Ruddock contested for championship twice and lost despite their powers and chins.
Unlike today’s champions who had got no strong chins Lyle, Shavers and Ruddock had got the chins. They withstood hard punches, especially, Ruddock whom despite falling twice against Tyson endured the 12 rounds of punishment.
Ruddock came out of his Canadian home a champion but couldn’t become world champion despite his physique and powers.
Boxing has shown us that being a hard puncher is not enough to win a match and becoming a world champion encompasses the ability to receive and the stamina to endure.
I could remember in their two fights, Briton Frank Bruno had shown a lot of guts against Mike Tyson but his lack of chin and stamina failed him. The American nullified him with heavy blows.
Again, Bruno’s performance against his compatriot, Lennox Lewis, was not bad, yet chin and stamina failed him.
Talking about chin and stamina today, one can only pick three and these include Andy Ruiz, Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury but then each of them has his shortcomings.
Having the chin is not the same as having the stamina. Twice, Ruiz had been over protected from heavy body shots against Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois. Under harder punches and without unnecessary protection by the referees, Usyk may not stand some heavyweight punches.
Tyson’s trilogy with Deontay Wilder shows that the Briton had got the stamina but not the chin. His last fight against Francis Ngannou exposed his plastic chin but he has got the stamina to compensate for this.
Ruiz, though heavy, has got a lot of stamina. He is a bull in the ring that can fall under heavy blow but he has always recovered quickly to fight on.
For Joshua, the Briton easily exhausts his stamina trying to knockout his opponent. Many believe he has no good chin, I do not agree. He has taken some big blows, yet he survived except that from Ruiz.
Joshua coming from the canvas to beat Wladimir Klitschko was not an easy thing to do for any boxer, but he was able to wriggle out himself from the coma to knock out Klitschko. For me, Joshua’s stamina is the issue not the chin.
