Many on here claim that there was no difference in a young Tyson to an old one...well according to former HW boxer Big Joe Egan he did just that . Mike knocked Lewis out for a few minutes and Lewis was no match for the young prime Tyson. Title of vid is the same as thread, uploaded Liam Galvin , if anyone wants to post it here. There's no doubt in my mind prime Tyson would do just that had he fought Lewis at any point. A true top 3 H2H fighter against ANYONE in history!
Big Joe Egan....who? A guy who has been dining out for years on his proximity to greatness ie sparring a young Iron Mike....oh it must be right then!? No vested interest there then. The self appointed “toughest white man alive”...gimme a break...Jesus....Rico Verhoeven puts him in a body bag in less than a round.
Joe Egan might be one if those "hard man" nobodies who carved out a modest living telling tales, the truth if which is unimportant. He's a popular story teller and after-dinner organizer. Anyway, I got a mate down the pub who was there - 'e used to be bareknuckle champion of world, under twelve stone class - and 'e says what happened was Tyson knocked Lewis cold with one punch, up in Catskill. But then Lenny McLean walked in and challenged Tyson to spar 3 minutes... Tyson **** his pants and Cus called the cops. The gym was right next to the station so they arrived straight away. Lenny McLean was going ape ! ****ing mental ! It took fifteen cops with guns to subdue him. He was caged in a special cell up in the old Sing Sing and deported back to London the next day ...
Like I said in another thread, I had a feeling that Lewis kinda seemed in awe of the pre-prison Tyson and seemed wary of any potential match up with him around that time. I could be wrong but just the vibe I got from the way that he spoke about him around that time.
Egan sounds like a honest man. This content is protected Anyway, Lewis wasn´t the fighter he would become back then. Beside carrying natural power, for me he always looked very lanky and unciordinated on his feet in his early fights.
From the photos it looks like only Cus D Amato, Arnie, Kevin Rooney, Tyson and Lewis were there. Cus and Arnie are dead. Kevin has Dementia and doesn't remember anything anymore and we are just left with Tyson and Lewis. Tyson in 1999-2000 in an interview claimed he knocked Lewis out on day 1 but Lewis came back strong in day 2 and day 3 and tried to knock Tyson out. Tyson these days doesn't mention any knock out of Lewis in interviews and on the podcast they did together Lewis always maintained that while Tyson bloodied and roughed him up on day 1. He held his own against Tyson on day 2 and day 3 and Tyson out of frustration threw his head gear and dared Lewis to punch him only for Cus D Amato to shout "Don't do that Mike, you are going to fight this guy for the heavyweight championship of the world one day" God knows what the truth is
I don' t believe the opening sentence is accurate. I don' t know any boxing fan that thinks Mike Tyson was at or near his best when they fought in 2002. Lewis was also past his prime but he took boxing seriously and was able to put together some longevity.
