Was watching Bowe v Tillery last night & the commentator said that Tillery was one of Tysons sparring partners for the 1991 Holyfield match. Apparently Tillery had Tyson out on his feet & was one of the reasons the fight was postponed. Don't know how true this is but thought I'd share, haven't heard that one before.
I don't know any exact details of Tillery's sparring sessions with Tyson, but I do remember that Tillery was known as the "gym champion" around that time. He got a lot of sparring work back then, with many big names, and is said to have had the upper hand against all of them. For some reason he never managed to click on fight night and was never a serious contender. Maurice Harris suffered from the same syndrome in the late 1990s/early 2000s. He made everyone look bad in sparring, but - with exception of a few good nights - rarely managed to deliver on fight night.
Sounds like Bull to me, Tyson defo had rib injuries for the Holyfield field. I may have believed this if this was a year earlier when Page and Berbick were whopping Tyson, but this isa round the same period Tyson put some leather on Ruddock
Tillery was considered a very good gym fighter, but mentally he never had it for the big time. He sparred Ali for his fight with Holmes and did very well against him. He sparred Tyson a lot during the Rooney days. One of the few guys that hung around with Tyson when he was beating guys up daily in the gym. James Broad, Jesse Ferguson, Elijah Tillery, these were the guys that Rooney liked to keep in the gym with Tyson because they would go hard with Tyson and take their lumps. I dont think Tillery sparred Tyson when he went with King. That was a whole new set of guys.
Not sure about this but I believe on the Bowe-Tillery 1 fight Tillery said he was the one who cracked Tyson's ribs in sparring, thus postponing Tyson-Holyfield '91. It's on youtube somewhere. Tillery doesn't seem like a stand up guy so take it with a grain of salt. Edit: Found the video. At the 1:55 mark Al ALbert talks about the "incident" in sparring. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5CzNuYbZMQ[/ame]
Originally his cracked ribs postponed the November 1991 fight before they had a chance to reschedule for '92, when Tyson went to trial and then prison.
I think Bowe-Mercer almost came off twice. I know for sure Bowe was to defend against Mercer in '93 but The Boogeyman got in the way.
Tillery was supposed to be an up-and-coming prospect back in the day.Greg Page said he helped him out in prepartaion for the Marty Monroe fight.
