Is it surprising to you that Tyson was never busy in the clinch?

I believe it was one of the commentators in the Tyson vs Tillis match where they pointed out how surprising it was that Tyson didn't take advantage of the clinch against Tillis as well as his previous opponents. Looking back at it he could've dealt so much damage to the other guy had he been more willing to fight in the clinch.

Why do you think he rarely got busy in the clinch?

 

he was a guy that was very easy to tie up.

 

That remains a mystery to me to this day

 

No, since Tyson was always very limited when it came to infighting. Tyson had a preferred range where he liked punch from, but was never comfortable when he was smothered or clinched.

That said Tyson had god given reflexes and was usually quick enough to pivot around guys that tried to infight him or clinch him and knock them out anyway.

Here is Tyson and Mathis. Mathis fighting Tyson in close showed how limited Tyson is as in an infighter, but Mathis not being the most disciplined fighter got lazy and gave Tyson just enough room to pivot to his preferred range and Tyson being Tyson immediately ended the fight.

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To be fair, it was basically Tyson's first fight back after three years but this is why I'm not sold on Frazier getting annihilated by Tyson as many do here.

 

I disagree. Tyson's combos and punch technique were well suited for infighting. He threw his hooks in the way that were effective for short range without losing any power on those punches, also the uppercuts. He just had a problem particularly with fighting in the clinch

 

Brilliant post.

As you say Tyson was fast enough to want to get full extension on a punch and needed the room to get that. He was also programmed to punch at an angle to his opponent. A position where Tyson couldn’t get hit back.

Short guys work hard and getting in close. Tyson worked just as hard at getting close - inside the other man’s punch - but only so close as to get just the right amount of distance for his best punches.

Other short fighters are content to punch their way in but once inside they have practiced and trained at burying away to grind the other man down. They develop shorter punches for this.

earlier fighters used a holding and hitting style inside consisting of what Dempsey used to call “shovel hooks”.

 

He probably just used the clinch to rest.

 

I don't know who came up with this, but someone has basically said Cus trained Tyson to knock guys out but didn't really prepare him for an actual boxing match in case that didn't work out. It really showed. What enabled Tyson to beat opponents when it went the distance was that he had such good fundamentals, timing, accuracy, etc that he was able to outwork guys like Smith, Tucker, etc. But those fights might have also been KOs if he was a better inside fighter and could break a guy down with short sharp combinations up close, diligently hammering away at the body, etc. It was also baffling Cus never spent a significant amount of time teaching his rather short student how to avoid getting wrapped up by all the big men of that era.

One of the worst type of opponents for Tyson would be an iron chinned guy with good defense who has superb inside fighting skills.

 

Slip the jab, look for the opening, don’t see it? Step in. Buster Douglas and Evander saw this and made Tyson realise how short he was.

 

The Buster Mathis fight showed us some stuff, it’s all there on film Tyson looked out of his element right up until he creamed Mathis.

 

Watch his fight with Buster Mathis and you’ll see how much of a hang he has on inside fighting.

 

Tyson did like to grab the opponents free arm a lot. I just watched his fight with Mathis & some of his fight with Nielsen. His best range was a bit further away. I’m close, his power seems smothered.

 

His very main weakness. Like an uncoordinated goof.

 

It was it a bit strange - and certainly if Mike specifically trained for the contingency of infighting, given his demonstrated abilities otherwise - you’d think he’d do quite well at it.

I’ve noted this before - but sometimes when Mike did get tied up or reasonably smothered - he would sometimes look to the ref as if it wasn’t the “done thing”, like he was expecting the ref to sort it out and break them up.

Was this an err on Cus’ part as @Glass City Cobra referenced or something lost during Mike’s early career, Mike being fixated on the fast KOs?

Would we agree or not that Patterson wasn’t too shabby on the infighting - but perhaps a feature to his game better exemplified after he and Cus parted ways?

Just some random musings.