Second career of Mike Tyson 9-5-0-2

He was still a deadly puncher post prison but far from what he was. He was deadly for the first three or four rounds but after that he was beatable. Too me, the most notable difference was post prison Tyson lacked the combination punching of the guy from the 80's and early 90's.

 

He was still pretty good from 1995-1999 but that’s it

 

Was trash. Beat 2 paper champs, never defended these belts and lost every fight at the top.

 

Mentally shot, technically deficient.
Still fast and powerful enough to blast some guys out but not the best

 

At least among Heavyweights, he is easily the most gifted & capable fighter relative to how little he achieved across his whole career. I rank only on career accomplishments (who beats who is a different story), & I don’t see any case for Tyson being in the top 10 - & yet head to head I have him beating men like Frazier, Marciano, Lewis & Tunney, & 50-50ish with the likes of Dempsey, Holyfield, & Holmes.

Nobody better encapsulates unrealised potential at Heavyweight, at least among those who made champ. His second career is a big part of that.

 

I am a big Tyson fan. There is a reason why his team kept him away from Tua, Ibeabuchi, Byrd and heck even guys like Brewester and Sanders. Not saying this version would lose to all of them but nonetheless they were just trying to make as much money from his as possible.

Tyson did look brilliant vs Bruno but Frank was a scared one eyed fighter,

The 95-99 Tyson still had big power, fast hands and pretty fast feet. But his stamina and motivation and concentration were low. His defence and head movement was inconsistent and his combination punching was only seen in spurts.

so no longer a great fighter, just a good one.

last time the real Tyson fought was vs RUddock 2.

 

He was still a great fighter who proved to us all that he had a great heart. His courage against Douglas, Ruddock, and Lewis was exemplary, all of them landed plenty of shots on him, in the case of Ruddock and Lewis crushing shots. And he was hanging in there, he went out on his shield for Lewis and Douglas.

I realize people don't rate Mike's Ruddock victories highly, but I feel he deserves props for even taking those shots at all. There weren't a whole lot of heavyweights out there at the time that could have taken those lefts and stayed on their feet.

Mike amazingly not only took (too many of) those shots, he came on to win both fights.

Mike was still fighting at an elite level offensively at that time, but it's hard to imagine Ruddock landing that much on 80s Mike. That's why I'm not positive guys like Bowe and Holyfield (not sure on Lewis) wouldn't have kicked his tail in 1991. I don't think he'd have made it against them. Just my opinion.

 

I actually think Mike Tyson from 99- Lennox fight is a little underrated

Still beat Golota, Etienne (who beat Brewster), Botha

 

Have you seen the Etienne “fight?” It was a disgraceful lay down quit job.

 

His style wasn't made for longevity

 

The Seldon win should of course count. He looked very good in 1996 until he ran into Holy. After the suspension it was a different story, but I do think the Golota win was a first class performance. He had started to slow noticeably by then, though.

 

By which we could expect ten or twelve years out of him, not for him to be fading by the time he was 23.

 

It was really 11-5 (Golota obviously was really a win and the Orlin Norris fight, Norris just didn't want it and got out however he could). I still think that Botha (I know) would be a better win over Golota though, Botha really came to get him, and was actually getting him. Tyson had a lot of pushback and adversity there.

You are right though, his second career was mediocre. But we're looking at 2 different Tyson's 80s - 1990 Tyson no longer existed. Honestly even before prison I think he was going downhill. I don't think Tyson was mentally stable enough to have a long..................and successful career.

 

Yes that's it. He had the power, more or less the speed but those combos were mostly gone.
Tbh I think they were disappearing as early as the Ruddock fights.