The Tyson that wrecked Spinks vs the Usyk that rocked Fury (1st meeting)

Fair points honestly and I get where you’re coming from, Tyson was an absolute nightmare if you couldn’t physically push him back or hurt him enough to make him second-guess. You’re right that guys who beat him usually had to fight him off and survive serious storms first.

But I still think Usyk’s style gives him a much better chance than most. It’s not about “beating Tyson down” like Douglas did, it’s about surviving that early wave, not getting trapped on the ropes, constantly forcing Tyson to reset his feet and restart his attacks. Usyk’s footwork and ability to change angles every few seconds would be critical here, he’s not standing in front of Tyson like a stationary target. He wouldn’t be looking to physically back Tyson up, but to make him work way harder than he wants to early and chip away at him mentally when the early barrage doesn’t pay off.

I agree he wouldn’t keep Tyson off him with pure power, that’s true. But I think Usyk could buy himself enough time with movement, angles, clinches when needed and constant light scoring to frustrate Tyson and start dragging the fight into the late rounds, where Tyson’s output historically started to dip a bit if he didn’t have things his own way.

Not saying it would be easy at all, Tyson would have real moments and might even drop him early, but over 12 rounds, I still think Usyk’s discipline, movement and tactical control give him a real path to a close decision. Just my take though, definitely not an easy fight for either guy.

 

It wasn't. It was below navel, therefore illegal. Same shot for which Tyson (or Ruddock) got penalized in their second fight.

 

Tyson won at least 10 rounds vs Tucker. Tucker did an excellent job surviving. He was zero threat to Tyson in there after the first 2 rounds. If Tyson "struggled" vs Tucker, then Usyk drew with Joshua. Which is of course silly since Usyk only lost 4 rounds to Joshua in each fight.

That's besides the point. Tucker lost by a big margin to Tyson and only succeeded in surviving. This fight was cruise control for Tyson. Zero struggle other than catching 1 or 2 big uppercuts early. Which he ate easily anyway.

 

IMO it was close but slightly low.

 

1) Tucker outslugged Tyson early. OMG impossible, I know.
2) When he broke his hand, he was forced into a less aggressive posture.
3) Tyson was not able to put away a one handed fighter.
4) Tucker isn't a patch on Usyk as a creative boxer.

 

Everything below navel is low, point blank.

 

1) No he did not. He landed a couple of decent shots and was backing away the whole time.

2) He didn't break anything. Its a silly excuse. He was throwing both hands comfortably. Once he realized, he couldn't beat Tyson, he went into fully defensive mode.

3) He was not one handed. He would have tried for a rematch otherwise. At no point, did he show any discomfort. Just a silly excuse made aferwards.

4) True. And Chisora is not 5% of the fighter Tyson was.

Come on. This is just silly. Tucker quickly realized he couldn't beat Tyson, became completely defensive, and then made up the hand excuse.

 

Believe what you will

 

I agree. But there was a reason it was debated a little.

 

I think this is a matchup were Uysk gets a bit underrated in despite how highly he is rated.

It's also worth noting this is Uysk probably slightly further removed from his prime here than Tyson.

 

There were two reasons for it: delusional Brits being butthurt and people not knowing what a low blow is. Some people also didn't watch the replays and close ups to see where the shot really landed.

 

Tyson looked impressive in that fight because Spinks was scared shitless, I think Tyson could win but Usyk wouldn't be scared like Spinks...

 

No such thing has having superior offensive skills, when you’ve been driven back by speed, pressure and power.

This is the point.

He wouldn’t have had the time or space.

He’d have been walked down.

And whether or not he’d have landed anything huge, he’d have pushed Usyk back and put him into defensive positions, which would have negated his own offense.

It’s not about skills.

It rarely is.

It’s about styles.

Tucker and Tillis have nothing to do with anything.

Nothing to do with Usyk.

You can add Smith if you like. But he just came to survive. He couldn’t bank the majority of the rounds.

If you’re thinking that Usyk was better than Tucker, and that Tucker caused him issues, yeah, it’s not as simple as that is it.

Otherwise we’d all agree that Usyk would have beaten him easy, because he was better than Douglas who easily beat him.

Usyk would have been relentlessly attacked, with nothing to have deterred Mike.

Usyk’s a chess master. But you can’t play chess with a guy like Mike.

Douglas beat him down.

Evander roughed him up on the inside and beat him down.

Lewis had the corpse of Mike in front of him and had to beat him down.

Usyk wasn’t equipped to have done that.

Mike would have been on the inside, up close and on his chest, all night long.

A very easy fight to predict.

 

Great post.

Very easy to predict.

 

I certainly respect your opinion.

Usyk’s my favourite fighter today.

But I don’t see where he’d have had any time or space to have boxed Mike.

I think he’d have been backed up all night, retreating and trying to defend himself.

Not only has he not got the power, the jab or the inside game for Mike, he wasn’t faster either.

Mike had faster hand and foot speed.

He could switch stances.

He was explosive.

To me, it would have been like an Ali-Frazier fight, where he’d have been suffocated on the inside. The only difference is, Mike was far more dynamic than Frazier.