What if Tyson beat Douglas?
 

What if Douglas stayed down for the full count in the eight round? How would boxing have changed if Tyson won?

Re: What if Tyson beat Douglas?
 

I like to think he would've gotten a grip and that would be his wakeup call

Re: What if Tyson beat Douglas?
 

He'd have been knocked out by holyfield in his next fight.

Him at less than hundred percent against a fit hungry motivated holy spells disaster.

Holy befuddles him with lateral movement and hard jabs before crushing him with a full blooded combo around the 11th round.

Now had he gotten the fight with holy after twice beating Ruddock I'd pick Tyson to win.

Re: What if Tyson beat Douglas?
 

Tyson would have continued to dominate and beaten Holy, Lewis,
Or anyone, or he could have retired for a while to rebuild his life.

Re: What if Tyson beat Douglas?
 

Tyson/Holyfield was pencilled in for June 1990. Although at the time I would of picked Leg Iron, 20 odd years of hindsight suggests I would probably of been wrong to do so...

Re: What if Tyson beat Douglas?
 

A Granite Chin (Holyfield/ Ali) beats a Dynamite Punch (Tyson,/ Foreman, Shavers)

Tyson would never have beaten Holyfield!

Re: What if Tyson beat Douglas?
 

Fighters who didn't fear Tyson usually did well with him, win or lose, and Holy NEVER feared Tyson. Nor did Douglas, that night.

Re: What if Tyson beat Douglas?
 

How many times do we have to hear people cite this bullshit in every Mike Tyson thread?
Fuck. It took maybe a tiny bit more than simply not fearing Iron Mike to beat him.

Did Mitch Green fear him? Jose Ribalta? Razor Ruddock? Larry Holmes? Peter McNeeley?

These guys didn't fear Mike, yet they all got their clocks cleaned. He was a skilled destroyer, not a guy who just lucked out when his opponent didn't "fear him."

Besides, how many of his challengers legitimately feared him? Yeah, sure, maybe I do, or you do, but we're talking about world champions here. The cream of the crop.
I'm sure they'd be extremely nervous but do the elite ever really fear somebody?

I don't think so.

Re: What if Tyson beat Douglas?
 

This

Enough of a wake up call for Tyson and he continues on until the late 90s and remains undefeated, undisputed ... might even get a Klit or two on his victims list.

Re: What if Tyson beat Douglas?
 

matters how he beat him, Being beaten up and winning on that 8th round uppercut would help him, but had he won by 1st round knockout he might have fought Foreman and been stopped, and that would have hurt Mike's legacy worse than Buster did. Like I always said, Mike was greater than George, but George was all wrong for him.

Re: What if Tyson beat Douglas?
 

There's no way a 40 year old Foreman beats Tyson. N o w a y. Stewart made Foreman look a lot prettier than he did.

I truly believe Douglas would have been that wake up call Tyson needed. Maybe he switches back with Rooney, or gets Giachetti, but he takes Holyfield seriously and trains like a demon. Tyson defeats Douglas, Holyfield and then Foreman that November. Ruddock is next up and maybe Stewart or Damiani. He wants out of the game but challenges with Bowe, Mercer, Morrison, Moorer and Lewis await.

Re: What if Tyson beat Douglas?
 

I gotta believe anyone who thinks Tyson would have suddenly had an epiphany and turned his life around, reigning until his late thirties before riding off into the sunset, undefeated is really fooling themselves.

Mike was already barbarously wealthy and rated somelike like the third most famous person in the entire world. I don't think anyone on this forum can appreciate what a crazy alternative universe a celebrity of that magnitude lives in, or the obvious detrimental effect it can have on a person's mental health. That kind of money and adulation can drive even the most stable person insane, and Mike was never close to being stable. He was a street kid with no ability to cope with that kind of success.

His life was already unraveling in an alarming way and by the time the Spinks fight was over the guy was dropping so many hints about his waning enthusiasm for the sport that Inspector Clouseau could see trouble was brewing for Kid Dynamite.

If getting his neck permanently lengthened curtesy of Douglas' uppercut wasn't enough to convince Mike to get his life in order, what makes people think ALMOST losing would do the trick. I just don't understand that logic. But even if I suspend disbelief and accept the premise, I just don't see Mike's rededication to boxing lasting for more than a year or two before the downward spiral would resume.

Re: What if Tyson beat Douglas?
 

Wake up call, my ass.

Anyone who thinks that having a tough fight with Douglas and winning would have made Tyson abandon his wrong path, get on the phone to Kevin Rooney and Bil Cayton, and say "I need your help.Let's get back to where we left off." is indulging in fantasies, AND ignoring everything that happened before and since.

It might have made him think about training harder for Holyfield, but how much harder he would have actually trained ? Probably not enough.

Re: What if Tyson beat Douglas?
 

Perfectly stated. :good

Re: What if Tyson beat Douglas?
 

Disagree.

What Tyson would do is the same thing other hitters have done when they manage to get the rare come from behind ko when they're losing. that is to depend on that punch in all subsequent bouts to do the same thing and get the same result.

What you end up with is not a guy that buckles down due to a scare. Instead it's prepare less because even if they are behind, they will land sometime and win the bout.

As for Tyson, the only time he did it was against Botha. I sure did not see Mike Tyson doubling up his sparring and preperations for his future bouts because of that scare.

A chameleon only changes colors. It's still a lizard.