Has Anyone Won A Lineal Title In Better Fashion Than Foreman Did?

By June 1988, Tyson had more pedigree and experience than Spinks at the heavyweight level. It was argued that Spinks's manager had never planned to match him with a good young/ranked heavyweight when they'd made that move to heavyweight. Butch Lewis was fairly open about that, saying he wouldn't put Michael in with heavyweights like Carl Williams or Tony Tucker because they couldn't draw enough interest to make such a risk worthwhile. Hence Steffen Tangstad.

Tyson had already destroyed half a dozen ranked heavyweights, the type of fighters Spinks had been steered clear off.
And while some people were thinking Spinks might pull an upset, there was a larger number of people openly predicting that Tyson would practically kill him.

Aside from Spinks, I don't think it's unreasonable to think that Tyson, with the swiftness of his opening attack and the general aura of invincibility being built up around him, put some fear into some very seasoned professionals, many of whom had seen better days and were clearly being portrayed as the fall guys and victims for the new young force.
James Smith has basically admitted it, he fought defensive/scared because he was influenced by the hype surrounding Tyson.
Larry Holmes even, in his autobiography, said he felt fear and didn't want to come out of his dressing room.

Certainly Tyson should be credited for this.

 

:boohoo

 

I don't think they were looking for sympathy. They just not smart enough to come up with a good excuse so they told the truth.

 

That's really interesting! It's not like the hype was unjustified, but I really didn't expect such a comment from Holmes

 

Yeah, Holmes contradicts himself a lot though.
I guess when he was talking with his ghostwriter about the Tyson fight he opened up about being afraid and not being ready, but at other times he would have denied that altogether. It ended up in the book anyway.

Holmes has a slightly schizoid attitude towards some of the other champions. Often he denigrates them, and other times he goes over-the-top in k!ssing their a*sses.
I've heard him go to both extremes talking about Tyson, as well as Foreman, Holyfield etc.

 

Holmes was a realist though.
He'd been trying to avoid tough fights for several years, and had struggled with the likes of Williams and Spinks, and coming off an almost 2-year lay-off at 38 years old, with no tune up, he knew deep down he was going to LOSE against Tyson.

 

Exactly, how could Holmes actually not be reticent? He wasn't punch drunk and battered enough not to know better. At his peak he would have felt differently for sure.

 

I think you need to differentiate between "hype" and respect earned through performance.

Still, the Thomas, Tubbs, Berbick, Tucker... even Green didn't seem intimidated in the slightest. Or at least didn't seem so until they got caught with the first shot.

Holyfield himself said that Tyson was the object of much derision at the Colorado Springs Oly training camp because he was so small, naive and so uncoordinated on the basketball court. So, this same guy was to become a monster in the matter of 2 or 3 years and intimidate guys who had been at the top of the game since the 70's? Maybe it's just the way the felt after getting hit.

 

Chang vs Zapata
Fighting Harada vs Pons Kingpetch
Wilfredo Gomez vs Kim
Locche vs Fuji
Armstrong vs Ross
Hearns vs Cuevas
Al hostak vs Steele (injury)
Harold Johnson vs Doug Jones

 

Hate to burst your bubble red, I thought about Hearns-Cuevas myself and I'm pretty certain it wasn't lineal.

 

Not all of them, but some of them were. Look I'm not trying to denigrate Tyson, I still remember myself thinking he was invincible, but against Spinks, I choose to believe what he himself said, over others who wish to speculate.

 

There were two postings of this fight, the one you watched I believe started in the first round, the other one, which I posted, has the built up leading to the first round, and as I said, the announcer never identified himself but it sounded like Bob Seridan to me.

Actually if you which the body language of both Tyson and Spinks leading up to the bell it's a very stark contrast. Tyson was pacing, had his shirt off, was warming up and looked like he was looking for blood. Spinks meanwhile, was clothed, never warmed up at all, and was barely moving around.

 

For the record, it was Bob Sheridan.

 

I always have trouble with that cause in my mind Cuevas was the guy. But you are correct.


I would even have to look at Chang and Gomez again but I think they were.

 

Did Sheridan call it live? I'll never forget him pretending to watch Duran-Kobayashi live, when it had clearly been recorded earlier.