On Saturday night at the Hershey Centre, not only did professional boxing return to Mississauga, Ontario, Canada courtesy of United Boxing Promotions, but so did many fighters of note – both of the present and the past.
In arguably the most anticipated fight of the evening, Donovan “Razor” Ruddock, former top heavyweight contender of the late 80’s and early 90’s who fought Mike Tyson twice, came back after an almost 14-year layoff to take on Raymond Olubowale in a 6-round bout.
For the first four rounds the message was pretty clear. It’s almost impossible for anyone in their 50’s to make a comeback in the brutal sport of boxing (no matter how good you were before).
Ruddock couldn’t get his punches off. He was even knocked down in the fourth round--more due to exhaustion than physical punishment.
However, they do say that a fighters’ punch is the last thing to go.
This was evident in round five. After getting schooled for four plus rounds, Ruddock (39-5-1, 30 KOS) lit up Raymond like a Christmas tree with a desperate double uppercut. The 6’7”went down hard.
He managed to get up, but the referee waved off the contest.
In my previous article about Ruddock, I said this fight wouldn’t answer many questions. But it did answer one question… one question that is enough for people to pay attention to Razor’s next fight. That one question is that is it a big achievement to beat a bigger, stronger, younger fighter even if he’s a 44 year old with a current record of (10-7-1).
It looks like the Ruddock retirement is still on hold and at the very least, it’ll be interesting to see how far he can go before calling it a career.
In the Main event of the evening, Logan Cotton McGuiness (21-0) took on Luis Armando Juarez (19-8-2) after a layoff that lasted well over a year due to injuries in an 8 round fight.
McGuiness showed that he hadn’t missed a step as he started off slow but took over after the 3rd round and showed why he’s one of Canada’s best chances to bring home a legitimate world title in the featherweight division.
The Rest of the Telecast Card Results:
Josh O’Reilly (3-0) from Hamilton Ontario took a competitive but mathematically dominant victory in a super-featherweight bout over Diego Vicente Perez (8-7-1) of Garin, Buenos Aires, Argentina. The scorecards read 40-34.
Tim Cronin of Etobicoke, Ontario (4-1) defeated Travis Connors of Miramichi, New Brunswick (7-4) by way of 3rd TKO in a 6-round fight in the light-heavyweight division.
Talented Orangeville, Ontario native Steve Franjic (12-2) continues to have problems as he loses is his second fight of his career (the second in a row by KO) to Ricardo Marcelo Ramallo (17-6-1) of Beccar, Buenos Aires, Argentina when the corner threw in the towel.
Southpaw Ryan Young Oakville Ontario (7-0) lost his perfect KO streak but kept his undefeated record intact with a dominant victory over the durable Bruno Leonardo Romay (8-4).
Junmar Emon of Toronto, Ontario Canada (6-2) takes a loss against Hamilton, Ontario native Kevin Higson (6-0) in a super-welterweight bout - arguably the fight of the night. Both fighters gave as good as they took.
Other Notes:
Former Canadian champ Donovan Boucher worked the card as the referee and did a great job as he kept out of the action only intervened when he needed to – keeping the spotlight on the fighters and being a true professional 3rd man like a Steve Smoger or Kenny Bayless.
It was a stellar card from United Boxing Promotions. Every fighter on the telecast fought as if they wanted to be there and win and not simply collect a paycheck.
