Why was tyson ''a hype job'' ?

Simply put, the media hype surrounding him was so insane, that nobody could have lived up to it.

 

He was a breath of fresh air after a long period of deprivation in the heavyweight division. He was young, explosive and exiting to watch. He more or less flattened an entire division within the course of three year of turning pro. Like most sensations he was overhyped. But definitely a great fighter who deserved at least some of the attention he got.

 

Later on in his career, it was said he would not be prepared to fight a come backing George Foreman, describing Foreman as a monster.
Google youtube to watch him winning the title in beating Trevor Berbick.

 

This is the truth.

He was also VERY YOUNG when he came along. They saw a heavyweight that good at 19, 20, 21 years old and they were thinking "imagine how good he's going to be when he's 25, 26, 27 !" . By 1987 or '88 we couldn't really imagine him losing to the fighters who were around on or the immediate horizon, and a lot of the boxing writers and broadcasters were saying he's going to be champ for the next ten years or more unless a "new Ali" comes along.
That was the general assumption.

 

At the peak of his rampage, he would fight anybody stupid enough to get in the ring with him.

After that he got worse, and some better potential opponents came along.

 

None of this should be construed as an attempt to say he wasn't really really good. Some might even say great. He wasn't "media hype," he was an excellent heavyweight champ who deserves a lot of credit for cleaning up the heavyweight mess of the 80's and instilling new-found life into a boxing scene that really needed it. I see no reason to do anything but praise him.

 

Not sure if he was hype, at the time during his undefeated run, I thought he was pretty much unstoppable. I could not of dream of a guy like Douglas even on Tyson's worse day, come in and well, knockout Tyson.

He was cleaning out the clocks of Larry Holmes and Spinks, who were great fighters. And easy at that. I think the Holyfield losses, and of course the later defeats at the hands of Lewis, perhaps really hurt Tyson legend wise. We no longer see him as a guy that can not be beating. He was mortal. He could lose, and did. But that takes nothing away from his greatness. During the 80's, he was the best. No one can take that from him.

 

Generally HYPE infers that something really not that great is being pumped up via the media to look like its great. Tyson hit like a hammer, was quick , hard to hit and had the aura of a Dempsey or Foreman. By aura I mean the audience felt they were about to see a search and destroy machine......and they did see just that for a while. What happened? Beaten up by Douglas, **** conviction and 3-4 years in prison, beaten up by Holy then fouling out against Holy via biting off his ear, obliterated by Lewis then finally closing out his career losing to nobodies and quitting in the process. The general consensus is he was a mentally weak fighter always steps away from falling apart. When historians rate all time great champions they look for specific attributes. Tyson had all the physical tools but he fails from the neck up and this is the main reason many historians hesitate to rate him along proven ATGs.

 

Far from it.

In terms of skill, there hasn't and won't be a HW as good as him.

Insane defensive skills, world class power, killer instinct that can't be taught, had every shot in the book down to a tee and was only 20 when he UNIFIED THE HEAVYWEIGHT DIVISION!

Far from hype. Far from it.

 

He was a front runner. As soon as he was in a fight he was losing...he lost.

 

This is the truth.

At ANY time between 86, and 90 he had met a Douglas he would have lost. He mainly beat older, or slower, or B class fighters, or guys with severe drink, drugs, or both problems.

His MO was to slip the jab get inside and throw fast, hard combo's and KO the other guy. With Douglas, he came up against a guy that had a fast, hard, and more importantly ACCURATE jab, that he just couldn't avoid. Hence he got beaten up, and stopped, because he had no plan B.

His apologists can, and will make all the excuses they can dream up, but make no mistake, that version of Douglas would have destroyed ANY version of Tyson. Too fast, too accurate, too big, and too powerful.

 

Every fighter....Ali, Louis, Johnson you name it had flaws. It just so happens Tysons flaws were ones you cannot fix. Bully mentality, front runner, self doubt. It's easy to fake you are tough but being tough only matters when you keep it all together when forced into tough situations.

 

Sadly Tyson is a victim of the hype that surrounded him. In hindsight the event of him losing was so astronomical due to this hype, that it would always be bigger than the fight itself. To the casuals Tyson was invincible. Kind of like the only way the fight would have been bigger than the event if Pac had beaten Mayweather. I'm not sure if that even make sense, I don't do so good with words sometimes