Mike Tyson:Overhyped?

this is why i will always belive that before prison tyson would have beaten holyfield, because tyson was not yet too far gone, and holyfield just couldnt help himself getting dragged into a slugfest. holyfied won in 96 by alot of clinching and using ring savy that tyson seemed to have forgot, but early 90s more often than not holy would try and fight his way out of trouble and would be wide open for counters ect. holy fould never be an easy task for tyson, but if the fight would have happened in 91 i just keep thinking it would have been tyson tko 10-11.

 

He needed it badly too. If Tyson does nothing else, that fight would've really solidified him on top of what he'd already accomplished during his first run, even if he goes straight to prison afteerwards and the same events unfold in 1995-97. He would've already had the win he needed, when he still had the abilities to thoroughly pull it off.

 

in retrospect it is hard to see Holyfield lose to Tyson, but in 1990 I thought Mike would stop him in 2 or 3 rounds. The 1988 Tyson would have a good chance to stop the 1990 Holyfield. Mike slipped that much defensively in just a few years.

 

The flipside to that is that, in going toe-to-toe with Tyson, he would have been landing a ton of punches himself.
The Holyfield of 1990/'91 was one of the best combination punchers who has ever fought at heavyweight. Tyson's punches may have been harder, but Holyfield could string a dozen sharp, accurate, hurtful punches together, and pick the right shots and fire back three or four counters.
Tyson at the time had already become less elusive and more predictable.
I would expect Holyfield to be a lot more careful than he was against Bert Cooper.

It would have been an interesting fight.

 

he didnt just beat contenders, he beat all the top HW fighters and got all the belts

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, this is quite literally the dumbest post in the history of the forum

 

I just watched Mike Tyson v Pinklon Thomas again.

There's no doubt that Tyson was an excellent offensive fighter, but some of the things that get attributed to him are way off the mark, IMO.

I think it was powerpuncher earlier in this thread who called Tyson, "the most skilled" and "top 3 defensive fighter" all-time at HW.

But looking at him going against Thomas (some say one of his very best peak performances), he didn't look too hard to hit at all, and he instigated a load of clinches, and generally his foot placement looked all over the place. Thomas was jabbing and cuffing him around the head all through a couple of those rounds, and pushing him back off balance. Thomas didn't have much trouble hitting him. And Pinky was exactly a speed merchant in 1987.

Of course, there's lots of good stuff Tyson did in that fight (the way he picks his shots, the way he goes downstairs then upstairs, and his sheer force and aggression coming forward, a great feint-and-hook), but he was a lot rougher around the edges than his biggest fans are now trying to portray him as.

For a short heavyweight though, he was quite amazing. Like Frazier or Marciano, you have to take your hat off to what they achieved with their lack of height and/or lack of reach. I think Tyson had shorter arms than Frazier.

 

I don't know if I read it in Facing Tyson or another book, but it was suggested that Tyson carried Thomas for a few rounds. I have no idea if there is any truth to it.

 

"He's definitely one of my favourites. I look forward to pitting my skills against his soon." - Tyson on Holyfield (1989)

 

World Boxing ran a similar theme after their first fight. It had a big picture of Ruddock landing (surprise, surprise) a right hand on Tyson's face, with the headline:
"Will a few more of these finish off Mike Tyson?"
Edit: this was after the 2nd fight, sorry.

 

Yeah, it was Ring Magazine that predicted a TKO 8 victory for Tyson, sometime in 1991 I believe it was.

 

Nobody could have foreseen what was to happen. I actually laughed out loud when I heard that Douglas was his next challenger. I thought that they were really beginning to scrape the bottom of the barrel.

Well, waddaya know? atsch

 

It didn't look like it, he was all over Thomas in round 1. Gave him a real hammering in that first round. Had Thomas bouncing off the ropes. Tyson was throwing his best stuff out there.
Tyson was coming off that horrible 12 round win over Smith, there's no way I could imagine him even considering carrying Thomas.

I think Thomas (who was already over-the-hill, in truth) was the best fighter Tyson had faced, up until that point at least.

 

I must admit, of all Tyson's challengers, Douglas was the first guy who I figured had no chance. All the others before him I had given a narrow chance of producing the upset.

... I'd like to think that I'm a bit wiser, 22 years later, but who knows ...

 

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZfaWa2IP4E[/ame]


Tyson, as always, FULL of respect and admiration for the great fighters.
He loves Evander Holyfield.

 

Tyson has said he often left himself in range of fighters jabs so that he was touched but not hit hard so he could establish his own firing range.

You saw this with a lot of his fights where the jab barely hit him in the forehead or his gloves.

Douglas was the only one who busted Tyson up with his jab and established range. Douglas was the first to sustain it over the course of a fight. The rest were eventually forced to fight or hold.