Am I the only one that thinks Cus being alive wouldn't have changed anything in terms of Tyson?

Completely agree …King would have convinced him that he was always a future investment of a twisted old man who wanted his last shot at the gold and that Cus was not some mythical figure who rescued a poor innocent out of kindness. In other words, the truth.

 

Mike may have been focused and had his head on straight (relatively speaking) for a little while longer, but only so much.

Mike had serious demons/trauma, and was not exactly a model citizen in the Catskills either. He was “on top of the world” in the late 80s, arguably the most famous athlete in the world and certainly one of the most famous celebrities in the world. He may have wanted some freedom and distance from Cus & the Catskill crew who had lots of control over his career.

 

I am not sure if this is true. Douglas had unusual movement and speed that troubled him.

neither Lewis nor Bowe could move like that. Mike would tear Lennox apart in the early 90’s IMO.

Tysons only real threat in the early 90s was Holyfield because of his unusual durability and toughness.

Pre Steward Lewis has very little chance can a rampaging Tyson. Too big and too hittable.

Mike matches up very well vs big hittable heavies like Bowe and Lewis in the early 90’s. It’s guys like Holyfield and Buster that spell trouble.

 

I can't see Tyson firing Cus unless they had a very serious fall out. To this day, Tyson stop gets super emotional about him and has tons of respect for the guy. That was his surrogate father.

I do agree that it's possible Tyson gets derailed at some point. He had so many vices: drugs, alcohol, women, etc and was just barely keeping things together even when he had Cus and Rooney. It might have just been a matter of time before he went nuts and/or slacked off. Cus cannot force Tyson to work out, jog, and hit the bag diligently with the same fire he had as a young prospect. The more success he had, the bigger the temptations. At some point Tyson would've been a grown man with an ego and he may have started to rebel against Cus. But I can't see him just firing and getting rid of him unless something ugly happened.

 

What do you think of Emanuel Steward’s belief that Mike wasn’t likely to be very successful past 25 due to his style?

 

I suspect the stability of Cus and Jacobs would have kept Mike stable for a little longer. But his demons would have come to the fore eventually.

 

Let me know if you find anything on that. I find it very puzzling that people always go on and on about how great Kevin Rooney was and how Tyson would've been so much better if he kept him in his team, but Tyson almost never talks about the guy. It would almost be like if Kobe Bryant never talked about Phil Jackson.

 

More like past 28-29 but yea I agree.

Steward was brilliant but I respectfully disagree with a few things he said on @Rumsfeld ’s brilliant channel. He suggested Tyson would struggle against big heavies like Klit brothers and he mentioned the Tucker fight as an example. Tyson beat the daylights out of Tucker for 10 of the 12 rounds and Tony was in full survival mode. Hardly a struggle.

 

I gotta go with the crowd in this one.

With Cus alive, Tyson stays at the top a little longer ... maybe 1 - 2 years.
However, soon or later his wild streak wins and from then on it is all downhill for Tyson.

 

My two pennyworth on whether Cus being alive would have changed anything in terms of Tyson is, i am sure Tyson would have distanced himself increasingly from Cus, Money, unlimited access to women and Tysons head strong manner would have made that nigh on inevitable.

However Cus was a psychology guru regarding boxers, so unless Tyson crapped on Cus enough for Cus to completely wipe his hands of Tyson, i see Cus sitting back, giving Tyson enough leeway to trip himself up and make mistakes, then the paternal svengali that Cus was with Tyson, would step back in and work his cerebral influence on Iron Mike, not saying he would solve everything.

Even if Cus was not part of Tysons team in middle/later stages, i do think that when Tysons life was fragmenting, i could possibly see Tyson viewing Cus as the one person he could trust, that is possibly COULD not necessarily say WOULD.

So i would say the influence of Cus being around, might well have limited some of Tysons self destruct tendencies, and been Tysons life boat when he needed rescuing on occasions.

 

You severely underestimate how clever and poisonous King was. Cus being alive means he doesn't get anywhere near Tyson.

"God, how could you make the same mistake twice?"—Cus when asked who was worse between Arum and King.