The Tony Tucker thread.

He had a lot of tools. He was big, talented, durable and he could box. Gave Tyson his toughest fight in the 80s, and gave Lewis a scare when past prime. He also beat the first man to beat Tyson, and the first man to beat Lewis. But I wonder what was going on in the first few years of his career. After five years as a pro the biggest name on his resume was an ancient Jimmy Young. There should have been a few more sink or swim fights in there.

 

If I remember correctly, his dad was his manager - and he wasn't a very good one. Apparently, he signed promotional agreements with more than one promoter at a time, which caused lawsuits and a lot of downtime between fights.

His decision of James Broad in late '86 was one of his few fights against a somewhat name opponent during his development. Broad had already lost to Marvis Frazier and had been destroyed by Tim Witherspoon. The only other name on Tucker's resume to that point was the aforementioned Jimmy Young.

He moved up the IBF ratings without beating quality opposition.

In hindsight, he probably could have used some better opponents while he was developing.

He did pretty well, regardless.

 

Tony injured his knee during a fight with Danny Sutton, that caused him to be out about 15 months, early in his career. That's a lot of valuable time. He was a very good boxer, fast, but not as fast as a Page, Tubbs, or Dokes, decent power, good chin, but, as mentioned before, probably a what if.

 

didnt take enough chances in big fights ....fought to survive against tyson ....and did not take any chances against lennox lewis ....

 

Some excellent reading in here. I think he would have beat Foreman and Spinks, he was an excellent fighter. I remember he beat Douglas on heart, that was a fine fight. Tucker ground down the more talented guy and defeated his will. Douglas was extremely talented.

 

I doubt he would have beat Foreman in 1995.
Foreman was 46 years old but Tucker was a very bad 36 himself.

Foreman needed a gift to get past Schulz, but Tucker lost pretty badly to Seldon and Akinwande before the year was out.
Tucker was just nowhere near as lively as Schulz. Foreman probably wins a decision or a mid-late-stoppage.

 

I think Foreman would've fought Tucker if he thought he could win.

 

He didn't particularly want to work with Don King.
As I remember it the WBA started making demands after Foreman had already arranged to fight Schulz anyway.

I don't know what Foreman thought, but I think he would have won. Tucker in 1995 was just as decrepit as Foreman was, and was never as good to start with.

 

I really like Tucker, right or wrong I consider him a wasted talent to a degree simply because he was imo very talented in his prime and his prime was a bit sketchy as he was not always the most focused dude outside of the ring

he was tough and big and not to slow for a big dude when he wasn't tired

I was always impressed with how he fought Tyson in the first many rounds when Tyson was always at his most dangerous :good

 

Very talented fighter. Could have done so much more.

 

#1 light heavyweight in the world, and you lose to a lesser fighter when it counts, something wrong.

 

Right.

King wanted Tucker to win the 'easy' fight vs Seldon and then Tyson would've beat him for the WBA belt.

Things went wrong, and Seldon was too much for that Tucker.

But Foreman probably overestimated Tucker's chances against himself in 95.

 

I remember Tucker taking tyson the distance in a good fight my mates and me were looking forward to the rematch but Tucker disappeared for three years if he had kept fighting in the late eighties he could have gone on to be the dominant champ knowing now how tyson lost the plot he could have come back and won the titles holding the belts until bowe and Lewis come along .a real what if situation.

 

I agree.

Based on his two fights in 1987, Tucker could have really gone on to be somebody over the next 2 or 3 years if he'd stayed clean, active, in shape, and free of so many legal/management issues.

A cocaine-free 30-year-old active 220 pound Tucker would have been an interesting rival to Tyson and Holyfield.

Instead he came back as a rusty, drug-addled 240 pound shell, more or less.

 

Buster Douglass in an recent issue of Ring, stated that Tucker was the fastest, best skilled, and had the best jab of anyone he fought.