DONOVAN ‘Razor’ Ruddock was a genuinely feared heavyweight puncher back in the 1990s. Ruddock, with his ‘Smash’ – a hybrid left hook/uppercut – scored some memorable knockouts and also played his part in some brutal action fights. From Mike Tyson to Tommy Morrison, from Lennox Lewis to Michael Dokes, ‘Razor’ sure met some big names.
Ruddock is restlessly retired now, although he did launch a shocking 2015 comeback, managing to score two wins at age 51, before being stopped – Ruddock says with illegal punches to the back of the head – by Dillon Carman.
Unable to completely leave the sport, he was last seen boxing an exhibition with fellow veteran James Toney in November 2023, and he says he is now interested in a fight with 60-year-old Oliver McCall, who is currently 2-0-1 in his own bizarre ring return.
Ruddock is also busy teaching both his 28-year-old son and his grandson how to box.
“This kid is named Donovan ‘Razor’ Ruddock Jr and he’s going to be awesome,” he says.
“Boxing is an art. If you know what you’re doing – and I’m teaching the art to my son, to my students in the gym – you really appreciate it, because that’s why I can talk to you so clearly after nearly 50 years of fighting.
Now living in Hollywood, Florida, Jamaican-Canadian Ruddock has some quite alarming things to say about the manner in which he believes he was beaten in the ring back in his heyday.
‘Razor’, who speaks exactly the same way he did when he was in his prime, his faculties seemingly intact, says he was never once beaten fairly during his career, only “cheated” out of victories.
“Look, I hadn’t lost a fight in almost 30 years when I went to Canada to fight for the Canadian title [in September 2015],” Ruddock says forcefully, his temper already getting the better of him.
“They brought in Lennox Lewis to tell him, Dillon Carman, how to beat me.
“Guess how he beat me? With rabbit punches. Illegal punches!
“They can’t beat me [fairly]. Lennox Lewis can’t beat me. Remember, I beat him in the amateurs [in 1980, Ruddock winning via split decision]. So they [Lewis’s team] said they would offer me $2million to fight in England and they would have Lewis hit me in the back of the head. And that’s what happened.
“That’s the only one that’s really bothered me, because he [Lewis] used to be my friend, we were at school together [in Canada], and we trained together, and he took me to London and robbed me.
“[Mike] Tyson knocked me down; I got up, right? Only [the fight with] Lennox Lewis I never got up, because it was a nerve shot, to the back of the f***ing head. It was a f***ing shot at the back of the neck, OK?
“Look at the fight, man – they were rabbit punches to the back of my head. Everybody tried illegal shots with me. I cannot stand it. Just because they know they don’t have a chance.
“Lennox wouldn’t have had a chance of going three rounds, four rounds. What they did was find other ways to beat me, by cheating – just because I’m a bad n****r! These other n*****s, they try all kinds of s*** in fights with me.
“Dirty bastards! I’m still in the sport, but I want to clean it up.
“I’m the odd guy out, the – what do you call it? – the lone wolf. Coming over from Jamaica, to Canada, and then I have to go to the United States, so I had no homegrown fans.
“All my fights, I’ve got to go and beat them in their house. That’s why I had to go to England to fight [Lewis]. But I didn’t know they were going to hijack me over there.”
It’s not certain too many fans will agree with Ruddock when he says he was beaten by a “dirty” Lennox Lewis, but the man who was stopped inside two stunning rounds in London in October 1992 makes his argument with what comes across as genuine belief.
Ruddock says the sport is “contaminated by barbarian robbers”.
He does, though. have plenty of respect for Tommy Morrison, who stopped him in a wild affair in 1995.
At least ‘Razor’ recalls the power Morrison had and pays tribute to it. But here, too, the claim is that he was “robbed”.
“I got clipped. Tommy Morrison caught me with a good left hook, OK?” he says, the volume rising again. “But you notice I got up, right?
“I know, it really was like a Rocky fight. I enjoyed that fight, until they robbed me. They stopped the fight too early, because Tommy was getting tired.
“Tommy’s a tough fighter, but nobody on planet Earth can beat me! I’m the toughest fighter on planet Earth.
“I’m telling you, I was on the ropes, but I had been in a worse situation before [in that fight] and I had come back already.
“Come on! I was blocking shots, my hands were up, I wasn’t down. He threw a couple of shots, but nothing got through and he was getting tired.
“But Tommy did hit harder than Lennox Lewis, and I got up, OK? Tyson also hit harder than Lewis, and Tyson hit harder than Morrison. I give Tyson the edge; he broke my jaw.
“We had fun in those fights. He [Tyson] said if I didn’t die in the fight, it didn’t count.
“And with Tommy, I was totally shocked when he died [from HIV]. I was totally shocked when I heard that he’d got it, and he’d just fought me [eight months before the diagnosis was announced].”
Ruddock was past his best by the time he lost to Morrison, yet he fought on until 2001, with the alarming comeback following in 2015.
And still now, in 2025, at the age of 61, he doesn’t believe he’s finished.
“Listen, I’m telling you right now, I’m hitting 10 times harder now!” he says.
“When do I get a chance to be bad? When do I get a chance not to be good? Tell me. I never had time to be bad, I prayed every day. I ran so many miles every day. I don’t get a chance [to be bad].
“You know what I weigh right now? I’m telling you, I’m 241 [pounds]. And I’m going to the gym later. I’m 61 years old – what’s the matter with you? You’ve got to live your life your way, not by listening to regular humans who tell you when you’re going to die.
“Listen, age is for humans. I don’t believe in age; I really don’t believe in it. I’m going to fight until I’m 400 years old!
“I’m so confident I’m the best fighter who ever walked the face of this f***ing Earth. I’m not even worried. Jesus comes before me, and I’m second.
“Guess what? I’m no human, and I don’t need no f***ing confidence, nobody telling me nothing at all. And I don’t want to hear anything negative. You can f*** off with that.
“I don’t want people to say we’re all the same, or that if you aren’t the same there is something wrong with you. Well, guess what, there is something f***ing wrong with me!
“I won’t even go back to Canada – they treat me like s**t there. I’m not a hero [there], because I’m black. That’s all it is.
“I’m not a p***y like Lennox Lewis, kissing their ass. I’m not like Lennox Lewis. He’s like a camouflage, a chameleon. He can be a Jamaican, a Canadian, an American any time he wants.”
All these years after they fought, it’s as clear as can be that Donovan Ruddock still carries plenty of serious ill-feeling towards Lennox Lewis.
“Make sure you put every damn word in I’ve said about Lennox Lewis,” he commands me. And with that, our interview comes to an end.
