Dicky Ryan

Dicky Ryan (born May 31, 1967 in Omaha, Nebraska) is a professional heavyweight boxer and former IBC titleholder.
Professional career
Ryan began his career on May 16, 1987 by scoring a 2nd-round KO against Steve Hatfield at the National Guard Armory in New Castle, Indiana. On February 12, 1997, with a record of 40-2 (33KOs) built on beating mid-level fighters, Ryan faced former undisputed heavyweight champion and lost to him in a 10 round unanimous decision. Then on May 2, 1998 he was stopped in the 5th round by the future 2-time WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko.
Ryan vs Nielsen
Ryan is best known for being the fighter who stopped the undefeated streak of the Danish fighter Brian Nielsen on June 18, 1999 in Denmark. At the time, Nielsen had tied Rocky Marciano's record of 49 straight wins by winning mostly against mid-level opposition since 1992, although he had notable wins over Phil Jackson, Damon Reed, Crawford Grimsley, Don Steele, Peter McNeeley and over several former champions like , Tony Tubbs, Larry Holmes and Tim Witherspoon.
During the fight night, Nielsen was controlling majority of the bout. In the end of the forth round Nielsen dropped Ryan on the canvas by a left hook to the body, but the punch was ruled a slip by referee Jess Andreasen (who saw Ryan blocked the punch). Nielsen did it again in the eighth round, although once again it was not the result of a punch but rather his leaning on the back of Ryan. The fight was eventually stopped in the tenth round, when Nielsen ran out of gas and lacked the energy to even clinch with Ryan, who easily pushed Nielsen off and into the referee. When Nielsen then fell back from the referee and into the ropes, the referee saw enough, waving the fight with a little over two minutes to go. Seconds later Nielsen collapsed in the ring and was rushed to the hospital. Later he was found to be suffering from massive dehydration. The bout had not been classified as a title fight, but the IBO still stripped Nielsen of their title as a consequence of his defeat. In December 2000 Ryan met Nielsen once more in a rematch and this time Ryan lost on points.
Later career
After that Ryan faced several notable names like Timo Hoffmann, Nikolay Valuev and Shannon Briggs, losing to all of them by knockout.
Ryan fought for the last time on September 7, 2007 against former heavyweight titleholder Hasim Rahman and was stopped in the 2nd round after Rahman sent Ryan down to the canvas twice. Ryan arose each time but Rahman continued to land mostly right hands, which Ryan, aged 40, had no defense for. A short time later, Rahman landed three shots to Ryan’s body, which doubled him over and sent him to the canvas where he laid as the referee counted him out. Ryan finished his career with a final professional record of 55 wins, 10 losses, 13 no contests with 44 knockouts.

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