A Controversy : Tyson Wins in 7th Round : Boxing: Referee Steele again in the middle, deciding that Ruddock is unable to continue. A brawl ensues.

Mike Tyson battered Razor Ruddock for six of seven rounds Monday night, but referee Richard Steele emerged as the man in the spotlight when he suddenly stopped the heavyweight fight in the seventh round and triggered a ring riot.

Tyson, far ahead on points, had knocked Ruddock down in the second and third rounds and was pounding Ruddock late in the seventh when four punches sent Ruddock reeling into the ropes. At that point, Steele, working his 83rd championship fight, stopped it.

Ruddock’s enraged cornermen leaped into the ring and started several fistfights, none involving the featured fighters. It took security men several minutes to restore order.

For Steele, it was his second controversial decision to stop a major fight. Last year, he was criticized for stopping the Julio Cesar Chavez-Meldrick Taylor fight in Chavez’s favor with two seconds left in the fight and Taylor ahead on points.

Monday night, with many in the crowd of 15,000 booing, Steele was surrounded by security guards as he was escorted from the stadium.

As for the main event, Ruddock seemed near the end of his strength at the finish, however premature. He took Tyson’s best shots, but in the end his firepower was much less diverse than Tyson’s. It turned out that Ruddock’s vaunted left hook was his only punch.

Not once in the fight did the long-armed Ruddock land a strong left jab. The lack of a jab became most visible when Ruddock seemed to wear down steadily as Tyson’s thumping body shots began to take their toll.

So Tyson, knowing no jab would keep him from punching range, was free to load up.

Only late in the sixth round, the only round Ruddock won on all the judges’ cards, did Ruddock hurt Tyson. He caught the former champion with a pair of hooks and a right late in the round. For the only time in the fight, Tyson was rocked. The crowd, for the first time, was now in the fight.

The “Ra-zor! Ra-zor!” chants started between rounds. But when the seventh began, Tyson’s relentless punishment of his 6-foot-3, 228-pound foe continued. Tyson, who at 217 seemed uncommonly trim, started the seventh with a lead right that rocked Ruddock’s head.

By now, approaching exhaustion, Ruddock was leaning away from punches instead of stepping back from them. A left hook to the head snapped Ruddock’s head back again. A moment later, to the astonishment of nearly everyone, it was over.

In the ring after the riot, Ruddock promoter Murad Muhammad said he was going to file a lawsuit against Steele. But in the interview room 45 minutes later, he had toned it down to a protest.

As for Steele, the one-time Olympic Auditorium light-heavyweight steadfastly called his call the correct one. And a life-saving one.

When asked if he felt he had stopped it too quickly, he responded: “No, I saved a life.”

“The guy (Ruddock) was hurt,” he said. “There was no need in counting him out. It is my job to stop him from being seriously hurt and the next punch would have done that.”

Steele said he saw surrender in Ruddock’s face, as he sagged against the ropes.

“Boxing is a sport, it’s not a race riot or gang warfare. And people must realize a man can surrender when he’s on his feet”

Tyson (40-1) later paid tribute to Ruddock (25-2-1). But he wouldn’t call him his toughest opponent. After hesitating when asked that, he said: “He’s very tough. I’m hurting now, but I wasn’t during the fight.”

Of Steele’s quick trigger, Tyson said: “I would love to have knocked him out cold. Didn’t anyone notice he was the only guy not complaining in their corner?”

Steele’s stoppage was his second controversial call of the fight. In the second round, Steele called what seemed to most to have been a Ruddock slip a knockdown.

Late in the third, Tyson hit Ruddock with a long, sweeping left hook and Ruddock crumpled to the canvas. He was up at the bell, and ruefully smiled at Tyson as he walked to his corner.