Tyson literally said he wanted to hurt Holmes really bad because of the Ali fight though.....................then said Ali whispered to him "get him for me" (and you can see Ali whispering to him) before the fight which fueled him even more.
He's an idiot. Tyson dissed Holmes to his face at the prefight press conferences, and was clearly out to hurt Holmes in that fight, which he did knocking him out cold.
I really believe that Trevor Berbick did take it easy on Muhammad Ali during The Drama In The Bahamas bout in Dec 1981. Ali was a past it spent legend of a great champion. It is hard to beat a loved boxing legend that fights on pure instinct.
Nah while Tyson would normally try to kick butt, he used Berbick's treatment of Ali as motivation. And he might well have gone easy on Ali, because he was a great student of the game, & he worshipped Ali. Unlike with Holmes lol!
I think if God Forbid Tyson faced Ali in 1980. He would have gotten him out of there quick. It would be a tko in 1 or 2 rounds, even though he greatly respected Ali, he would have gotten him out of there to save him a prolonged beating.
That is very possible too. Or he might pull his punches but land often & plead with the referee to stop the fight.
Tyson was clearly going at Holmes with bad intentions and why not? This was boxing - the "hurt business" MIke may well have respected Holmes but he was n't going to let that stop him beating him.
Trevor was doing his best against Ali. Muhammad was still good enough to be competitive against him in spite of his illness and being over the hill.
Tyson knocked him out. And did not take it light. That was an odd fight for Mike though. He had one of his heroes asking him to knock the head off of another of his heroes. You can tell he feels bad about it because when he's asked about it, he mostly just responds with hero worship of Larry and points out that Larry had been retired with almost no time to train.
I think he just did what he had to. Had he wanted to punish Clay though he would have been well within his right to, as clay was customarily disrespectful throughout the preflight buildup
