The key to Tysons greatness and cause of his downfall

An interviewer once asked operatic and symphonic conductor Bruno Walter 'Is a conductor is born or made?'
"Well, you have to be born a conductor, then you have to make yourself a conductor."

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Great post, Pugilist_Spec.

I'll add that, when Tyson's defense declined, one saw how vital it was to his offense.

 

Legs.

When his legs went just a little, they threw everything off. The combos don't land. His lead right hand from the outside doesn't land clean. He stands around and when he's upright that defense has holes. Guys like that have to bend at the knees at all times and use that spring for their power and quickness.He had to bend at the knees to do his side to side upper body movement to make the other guy miss and to launch his attack.

 

Pretty much spot on mate. Tysons downfall started when he changed trainers and stopped training the way he always trained. The system didnt really allow for much flexibility. When that stopped he basically had to fight on instinct. Still think to this day that if he continued to train the same way and stayed away from outside influences he would have remained unstoppable.

Cus d mato was a genius to an extent but dont think the system was sustainable for anyone.

Just finished reading tysons book the other day amazed he actually stayed at the top as long as he did. Had massive problems he never really got the better of if its to be believed anyway. Shows you what an amazing job the team done with him coming through the ranks. When he was still able to compete years past his best...without training properly and with the problems he faced.

Amazed that to this day no one that i know of has tried to replicate d,mato,s system. Especially looking at the current state of the heavyweight division.

 

Because all of the other great fighters didn't train hard and weren't determined. What a joke, I don't think Tyson is the GOAT, but it's pathetic the lengths people will go to in order to bash him. Take it to the playground kid. Change your name to "Pre-school specialist" while you're at it.

 

A very good ****ysis, and quite likely a correct one.

 

Good post. Once he left his original team, he was on borrowed time.

 

It was the fame/money. Why would you work as hard as you did when you were a nobody?

 

These were my thoughts as well. Not many teens were built like him.

 

Tyson was very fragile mentally. Once he was in the hands of strangers rather than old friends who loved him, he was the not same. Also, his fighting style suited a very young man, not a mature man. It required flexibility, speed, and intense training. You could not coast with his style, the way Ali could. Also, the dedication was gone and his relentless style required a dedication to training that he no longer possesed.

 

His footwork during his prime was.superb as was his lateral movement.later on he just walked in and had to take punches
His style was text book for a shorter fighter to copy.

 

He was small, and incredibly well-trained, and talented. Once he trained much less, it was a matter of time.

 

wholeheartedly disagree with this and the adjective superb. In his youth, it was pretty good. Especially when facing flat footed heavies. That was as good as it would ever get.

His footwork was never as good as D'Amato's other heavy, Patterson. And there are weaknesses with that type of footwork anyway and it is only effective going forward and horrible at backing up.

 

I remember vaguely Manny Stewart saying that Tyson style will be great while he's young, but as he get's older, punches that were missing earlier in his career will start landing, in other words his style isn't good for long term greatness. Plus what compounded the problem was leaving the disciplined trainers he had under Cus Damato for the insanity of Don King. So what could've been an A.T.G or the G.O.A.T turned into so much loss potential .