Douglas wasn't a diamond in rough, Tyson always had problems with that style.

The blue print was laid out by Holmes first, If he were younger… you don’t beat Tyson by staying away with your jab, it would never work. With MT you find where he is going with your jab and put your right hand there on his way in after some recon, pattern him, clinch (hell oblige), reset and try to figure out where he’s going. It played out endlessly vs Douglas and once MT had to start thinking about things instead of flowing through his routine he became very hittable and his reach issues were much more pronounced.

 

Page got beat by a fighter called mike wills with a 5-5-1 record 4 months after douglas beat him.

Tyson wasnt washed at 25. He was a drug addict who,d left his trainers and stopped training properly. Hence why he began to struggle. Nothing really to do with douglas,s style or douglas always being able to beat him. Douglas would have got battered by the version of tyson we had seen hence why it is still regarded as one of the if not the biggest shock in boxing. The tyson that turned up was a drug addict going through a divorce who hadnt trained properly for quite a while.

At that point and in that condition Douglas,s style was perfect to take advantage and that he did. He battered tyson that night.

 

"Ifs" don't exist. What if Douglas wasn't sick? What if Tucker didn't break his hand and the fight went 15 rounds? What if the fight with Tillis went 12? Exactly. Only losers needs excuses. Winners don't need them.

 

Yeah, people really overlook Larry’s performance in that match, his tactics were actually working, he was just too old and weak to sustain.

 

Tyson started to smoke weed at 9. Started to drink at 10. Took hard drugs at 12. He was a drug addict just like most of the boxers he beat. He stopped for a while, but came back to old habits when Cus died. And it was in 1985. A year before he won a title. Speaking of winning the title - he won it while having gonnorhea he caught from a hooker at the drug infested party. He was slacking off in training since 1987. And yet nobody mentions it when talking about his biggest wins in '88. Suddenly, when he loses, he's a drug addict and that's why he lost.

 

I think it had a lot to do with him getting too comfortable. LH got up on his toes and didn’t have the legs for it anymore.

 

Exactly. Tyson wasn't washed or declining at 23. He was bored and unmotivated. Bored like everyone else I knew at the time with his fights.
I was a kid but all the older guys I watched Tyson vs Spinks with were cheering for Spinks because they were bored with Tyson. If you weren't bored after that fight then the Carl Williams really made the whole thing seem pointless.
It is not good for anyone to have a fighter in their early 20s seem to clear out the whole HW division with no challenge on the horizon. At least every other weight class there is the challenge of moving up in weight.
If you give a guy at that age all the money in the world, crown them the greatest at something and give them no challenge, some kind of vice is going to get them.

 

That too but even before he started bouncing around, Holmes' tactics weren't doing much beyond frustrating Mike because Mike was too strong. A younger Larry would give him a long long night though.

 

Nonsense. Most of the guys who Tyson beat during his title reign had that style and some of the ones he beat before winning the title did too. Every 80s heavyweight was an Ali impersonator.

 

He was just in crappier condition for Douglas than every fight until that point except maybe Williams, who the same thing as Douglas but got caught.

 

Exactly one of the reasons they kept him busy with training and fights. He won the title and his fights got longer between them. He left his trainers. Stopped training how he trained. Got injured before bruno was out for a while. Was going through a divorce was taking more drugs and training less. These are excuses as look at douglas his mum had died he was sick and still pulled it off.

Their also reasonings for what ended up happening. Its silly to put it down to douglas just having the style. The excuses for the defeat was on tyson. It was his own fault. To ignore the reasonings for the defeat tho is silly. He battered better guys with similar styles at 18. Douglas got beat and had hard fights with guys tyson destroyed. Add to that he was totally lethargic from the first bell.

 

Well, it's on him. His whole team tried to save him from himself, not even allowing him to leave the hotel, unless it's going to the gym. He found a way to party in the hotel, lol. Douglas on the other hand wasn't 100% from the things he had no control over. And still whooped that ass!

 

At the end of the day, Douglas was better at facing the adversity than Tyson. At least that one night.

And if we exclude drug addicts and guys past their prime from Tyson's 80's championship resume, we only have who... Tucker?

 

It is on him, but that contradicts the point of the thread. And if Douglas wasn’t 100%, then he never was.

 

Douglas was a slacker who never reached his full potential. They were both not 100% and Douglas won, simple as that.