You said that Tyson dies of a drug overdose in '95. Given how messed up Tyson was at the time, I think it's more likely that he commits suicide.
His team was still ****. It actually would've been worse because by winning it would've deferred the wake up call and he'd have probably lost to Evander. Now if we're saying his real team stayed in place, he wouldn't have lost for years and years. But that Mike was gone.
In his fanboys' fantasy world - had the ref not allegedly cheated Tyson against Douglas - he would've took it to another level, defeating challengers Holyfield, Foreman, Ruddock, Mercer, Bowe, Lewis, & LIONEL BUTLER before retiring as the undefeated GOAT.
Not sure how the rest of his career would play out but I’m thinking that eliminating that horrific loss to a fringe level contender like that would leave his resume in a much better light. It seems to be the biggest thing people criticize him for.
Watching how Holyfield beat Tyson, I can’t help but think Foreman could have done so using the same game plan. Bigger, stronger, just as durable, much harder hitting. That wasn’t really George’s style, but who knows what might have happened if they did fight. I think he had the physicality and skills to do it, just don’t know that he’d have run that plan.
While true, they sort of leave out that Buster was an underachiever for the level of potential he actually had. The Buster who fought Tyson would have been competitive with the other big dogs of that era. It isn’t even so much that Tyson screwed up as it is that Buster actually lived up to his potential for once.
I think it's a bit of both. Tyson definitely didn't take the bout seriously, and had such an atrocious and unprepared corner, they used a condom filled with ice, as an ice-pack!
Agree. That fight wasn’t an accurate representation of either man on an average night. It was a rare instance in which one fighter showed up to give the very best performance of his career while the other gave his absolute worst
Tyson got dropped by Greg Page in sparring, his preparation was terrible leading up to the fight. His corner was a joke didn't even have a metal compress for his swelling. It was both Tyson had his worst night and Buster had his best night.
Douglas wasn’t exactly bad, when motivated did very well and had a decent resume aside from Tyson with McCall, Berbick, Page, and was winning against Tucker. Seems the Holyfield loss is why he isn’t taken so seriously. And Tyson was on track to losing to Holyfield which may have been his wakeup call. Rematch may have been interesting with a motivated Tyson and without Holyfield getting the experience from the Bowe and Foreman fights.
A career best back to back with a terrible performance didn't help. And that's why he isn't given that much credit. Inconsistent. He was a waste of talent and potential. Imagine if the Douglas of the Tyson fight had showed up to his fight with Holyfield. Kudos to him for pulling off the greatest upset in the history of sports though. Nobody can take that one from him. He's in the history books for that.
I tend to think that Holyfield made George appear more potent that he actually was considering that he was unable to beat any of the top fighters (barring Moorer who was having a field day before he got caught). Let's not forget that from a scorecards perspective Holmes had a closer fight against Holyfield than Foreman. George's hands were just too slow for Mike, his inability to beat him to the punch was the main reason why couldn't beat Mike. It's conceivable that he might have remained upright for the duration of a Tyson fight, but in 1991 I still think Tyson stops him. Bowe and Lewis would have done the same to George.
Not much different IMO. Tyson's life was falling to pieces in 1990. His personal life was a mess, he wasn't training properly and his skillset was gradually degrading since he fired Rooney. Before the Douglas fight, Tyson thought he didn't even have to bother to train in order to win, so assuming he would have beat Douglas easy, he'd have buyed into his own invincibility even more and would most likely lost to Holyfield or if he also beat him, he'd definitely loose to Bowe. Now, if he'd have a really tough time beating Douglas, he might realize his mistakes and would have went back to proper training, in which case, he'd have a few more title defenses, then retired circa 93.