No Question: Tyson Wins Again : Boxing: Former heavyweight champion scores unanimous decision for second victory over Ruddock, talks of a rematch.

LAS VEGAS —  Mike Tyson knocked down Razor Ruddock twice, again stood up to his best punches and defeated Ruddock by unanimous decision in a foul-marred heavyweight fight at the Mirage Friday night.

Ruddock, as he did in their first fight last March 18, rocked Tyson often with his booming left hook but again, as in their first fight, he never really hurt the former heavyweight champion.

Tyson, by contrast, pounded away almost at will, connecting to Ruddock’s head with both hands and also with body punches.

Tyson seemed to have Ruddock on the verge of being knocked out early in the 10th round, when he hit the Jamaican-Canadian with 16 consecutive punches.

Tyson, 216 pounds, knocked the 238-pound Ruddock down in the second round with a long right and again in the fourth with a countering straight right hand.

Two judges, Dalby Shirley and Art Lurie, had Tyson winning by 114-108. The third judge, Chuck Giampa, had Tyson by 113-109. The margins would have been wider, but the referee, Mills Lane, deducted three points points from Tyson for low blows in the fourth, ninth and 10th rounds. Lane also took a point from Ruddock for hitting after the bell to end the eighth.

Afterward, Tyson’s promoter, Don King, didn’t exactly throw down the gauntlet to heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield. When he was asked about a Holyfield match, he curtly told a TV interviewer: “We don’t want Holyfield.”

Tyson’s former manager, Bill Cayton, said this week that for King to have arranged the first Tyson-Ruddock fight was “stupid,” and that Tyson-Ruddock II was “idiotic.”

Tyson said it afterward: “Can I tell you something? I can tell we’re going to fight (Ruddock) again.”

Tyson, who will turn 25 Sunday, improved to 41-1. Ruddock, 27, is 25-3-1. It was the first time Tyson had gone the distance in a fight since he won Tony Tucker’s International Boxing Federation championship Aug. 1, 1987.

Tyson, often curt with reporters after his bouts, spoke calmly and politely afterward.

“Those 12 rounds went by really fast, it seemed like the sixth when it was the 12th,” he said.

“No, I didn’t believe he could go 12 with me. Yeah, he hurt me--a couple of times. When I knocked him down, I knew he’d get up because he’s an athlete.

“It was a very tough fight . . . it was very hot (86 degrees at the start) in the ring. Late in the fight, I knew it might go the distance so and I knew I was way ahead on points. I hurt him with the body shots, they slowed him down a lot.”

Tson blamed his low blows on Ruddock’s shorts.

“I didn’t complain (to referee Lane), but Ruddock kept his trunks pretty high.”

Ruddock didn’t attend the news conference.

Said his promoter, Murad Muhammad: “Tonight, Razor fought the greatest heavyweight in the world to a great fight.”

King praised Tyson’s conditioning, in part responding to published reports that Tyson trained half-heartedly for Ruddock.

“This man just went 12 hard rounds with Razor Ruddock, and that says something about all the lies,” he said.

King also claimed Friday’s match generated the largest pay-per-view audience ever. Not likely. Tyson-Ruddock I was a distant third on the all-time PPV list, behind Holyfield’s fights with George Foreman and Buster Douglas, and most cable experts predicted Tyson-Ruddock II would finish behind Tyson-Ruddock I.

Tyson’s punches seemed far more crisp Friday than in recent victories over Ruddock and Alex Stewart. Also, he fought at a deliberate, measured pace. Gone were the occasional wild, stumbling misses of recent fights. He seemed under control throughout.

He rocked Ruddock midway through the first with a straight right to the head, after Ruddock landed a left hook to Tyson’s ribs.

Ruddock had landed several scoring shots at close quarters when Tyson dumped him in the second. Lane had warned Tyson for a low blow moments before when Tyson put Ruddock down with a high, looping right hand that caught Ruddock on the left cheekbone. Ruddock was more stung than hurt, and he got up quickly, with a smile.

Ruddock rattled Tyson for the first time in the third, with a left hook and a right uppercut. Tyson didn’t wobble, but he did back up a step. That result would be repeated several times in the fight, Ruddock whacking Tyson with an occasional good shot, but never coming close to putting him away.

Ruddock’s best opportunity was the 10th, the most exciting round of the fight. Seconds after Tyson had ripped away at Ruddock with 16 punches and seemed to have Ruddock tottering on the edge of being knocked out, Lane halted the action to take away another point from Tyson.

Then came Ruddock’s big moment.

He rammed home two big right hands to Tyson’s head, then rocked him again with another left hook. But Tyson recovered quickly, and Ruddock’s opportunity slipped away.

By the 11th, Ruddock looked like the loser. His left eye was half-swollen shut and his lower lip was split. He again briefly rocked Tyson with a left-right combination, but this time he was warned for a low blow and another opportunity slipped by.

Tyson had looked sharp in the seventh, when he was tagged solidly by two big left hooks to the head. One followup shot at that point, it seemed, and Ruddock might pull it off. But instead of coming back with a left hook as Tyson backed up, Ruddock threw three long right hands . . . and Tyson slipped all three.

Tyson battered Ruddock to the body in the mid-rounds. In the Mirage’s noisy outdoor stadium, before more than 15,000, Tyson’s shots to Ruddock’s ribs could be heard 30 to 40 feet away.

After the eighth, the point Ruddock lost for hitting late seemed to be a bum rap. Tyson hit Ruddock after the bell, but when Ruddock retaliated with a late blow of his own, Lane took the point from Ruddock.

The finish was in stark contrast to the events of March 18, when Ruddock’s cornermen rushed into the ring after referee Richard Steele’s sudden TKO call in the seventh round. A ring riot ensued, with suspensions and fines that followed.

But this time, immediately after both men landed low blows at the final bell, each smiled at the other and they embraced.