Tyson missed a lot of punches in the Buster Mathis Jr fight. In this fight he looked extremely rusty at best, i doubt he was training properly, was unable to let those hands go and the combinations in.
This isn't true, he looked woeful against Nielsen and his years of not living right were catching up with him. A fighter with his style tends to decline in their late 20's and tend to retire when they hit 30 as proven by Marciano, Joe Frazier e.t.c.
The first two were not really ranked contenders, absolute garbage opponents. Had Golota continued into the middle and late rounds, Tyson would have badly struggled as he was shooting his load and head hunting in that fight.
What do you consider Botha, Etienne, Golota? You can't beat those guys in a few rounds and be shot to bits. The win over Golota looks even better now because Golota went on to get robbed by Ruiz and Byrd. Tyson was faded, not shot.... Shot is Danny Williams, Owen Beck, Rahman for the last decade or so...
Botha and Etienne were lucky punches to be honest, Tyson could not last more than 2-3 rounds anymore. He relied solely on his punching power which faded as the fights went on. Golota just quit, in the second round Tyson was looking less effective and if he saw Golata still standing during the middle and later rounds of the fight, he would have given up for sure as he lacked the ability to fight longer fights now.
Tyson worst case scenario was still a fringe contender. That's not shot by how I know the definition.
He was shot. He was never the same post prison, then throw in the bite fite suspension his timing and dedication to the sport were gone. Savarese wasn't very good and got caught early Tyson's still had power but everything else was 50 percent of what it used to be.
This. Tyson himself admitted back in the mid 90's that he couldn't use the peek a boo style effectively anymore because his reflexes were gone. In the Botha fight you can see Tyson miss shot after shot cause he's too slow and stiff. Botha foolishly tried to punch with Tyson, which allowed Tyson to finally land flush. By the late 90's Tyson also started developing knee problems. Tyson was beyond shot after his prison stint. Tyson before his prison stint could fight anybody, but afterwards had to be carefully matched.
That punch allowed the Tyson circus to lumber on. If Botha continued outboxing mike it's likely he could have stopped An exhausted Tyson on his feet late imo, which really would have been it....