October 16, 1987 Mike Tyson KO Tyrell Biggs

32 years ago to the day. Time is flying fellas. Biggs, to me, was Tyson's sworn enemy. Mike wore all black and Tyrell wore all white in this grudge match. Many thought it would be the Ali-Frazier of the 80's.

 

Yes they did, it got me pumped up for the next FOTC!! It was going to be a great rivalry..

 

Many tipped Biggs to beat him and be the next big thing

 

The Duvas threw Biggs in before he was ready because they were afraid his drug problem would derail his career sooner rather than later.

 

Biggs Tyson was supposed to be the Ali Frazier of the 80s it didn't quite work out.Biggs was a good boxer very skilled .Hope he's doing ok .

 

I thought it was one of Mike’s best and under appreciated performances. After his out of sorts display against Tony Tucker in his previous fight, there were many that thought that Biggs might well be catching Tyson at the right time before he got any better. I was in England at the time and I remember reading the well respected Boxing News weekly over there and in their preview of the fight, they thought that Biggs might well turn out to be Tyson’s toughest fight to date and it could be a hard fought highly competitive fight that might even go the full 15 rounds. As it turned out, after a fascinating 1st round, where Bigg was able to move and jab the way he said he would and Tyson showed unexpected poise and controlled aggression as he stalked after him, Tyson really took over as he slowly but surely wore down Biggs. Taking the strength out of his Legs with body shots and rattling his head with punches as well as a few elbows and forearms thrown in for good measure. Tyson said afterwards that he could have taken out Biggs any time he wanted but carried him to inflict more punishment on him and it did begin to look like that after the first couple of rounds.

Like I said before I thought it was a outstanding performance by Tyson and the start of a stellar four fight run accumulating in the one round blowout of Michael Spinks that could have been seen as Tyson at his absolute peak.

 

“They all have a plan until they get punched in the mouth”. Biggs was impressive... for exactly two minutes and twenty five seconds. After he got hit flush a couple times, he entered survival mode. Holding his right hand WAY too low, he ate left hooks all night. Shame. Liked the kid. Cocaine is a hell of a drug.

 

Well I thought going in it was a mismatch and pretty much along the lines of the Carl Williams fight for Mike. actually decent odds for a tyson fight back then.

It sure seemed to me that folks gave those guys a big or lets call it a good chance because of their jab and their boxing. Their offense and offensive skills. what they did not acknowledge or even think about was either guy's defense. And even worse, their defense against the kinds of punches Tyson threw. To me, it was academic. Simple really. their defense was not good enough for them to use the rounds it would take for their offense untracked and effective. And having to learn things like holding his hands up at all times.

The other huge factor was that Tyson was a guy that started faster than anyone. The Biggs defense was not going to hold up well and it certainly had the possibility to force Biggs into exchanges. And he could not afford to exchange with this opponent. Sure he could exchange with the David Bey types, but not this guy.

 

Even though the fight lasted longer than expected, at the end of the fight Tyson looks like he could go for another 10 rounds if needed. He was simply well conditioned at the time. I always amazed how Tyson would just shrugged off those uppercuts that landed flush on his chin back in the day.

Biggs always gets tired pretty quick. I watched some of his other fights and after a few rounds, I noticed he'd breathing heavily with his mouth. Thanks to drugs I guess.

 

I was watching some of this today. Biggs boxed well in round one and then either couldn’t or wouldn’t move after that. I liked him though. He had toughness. Gave Bowe a pretty good fight I remember.

 

Leonard echoed my own feelings when, after watching do pretty darn good in the first round, he abandoned his (good) fight plan and took the idiot's route of trading with Mike.

And yeah, I think Biggs had a good chance of beating him...he was thrown in too early. And I think that fight kind of ruined him.

 

Everybody's gotta go some time, I suppose.

When I was a little kid I always wondered when the people on TV went to the bathroom. Five-year-old me reasoned that going to the bathroom was such a part of life; everybody did it. Why didn't they show it? Where did Captain Kirk go potty? Was there a toilet just off the bridge? (Technical drawings someone did established that there was, but I didn't see these until I was nine or so.) Even watching boxing, I wondered why no one ever had to go to the bathroom during a fight (this was a few years before November 1980).

Anyway, back to our regular discussion...