In hindsight how do you view Lewis-Tyson?

As a formality.

 

Mike was actually a year younger than Lennox, iirc, but he aged in dog years.

Lennox liked to play with his food sometimes, but he was in control the whole way. Letting Mike hang around for a couple extra rounds was no big deal because he wasn’t careless — wading in to finish Tyson could have ended it earlier but it might have given Mike the best chance he was going to get to land a fight-turning bomb.

 

IMO Steward used to get a bit overambitious at times. From memory he was imploring Hearns to go balls to the wall at certain stages of SRL II. Hearns would have had more chance of gassing out that KO'ing him. He gassed out near the end as it was.

 

I recall Tyson coming out strong and looking pretty much done by round 3. Like others mentioned, I also remember Steward begging Lewis to finish the fight. In hindsight Tyson was completely shot. I didn’t quite realize that at the time but I was 23 and loved both guys. Lewis even tried to get Tyson in the ring again. Maybe even took him to court???

 

Good win for Lewis although Tyson was mostly a name at that point.
The fact is that you still have to beat him, and there was always a chance that Tyson could land some big shots.
Lewis did take care of the job masterfully.

 

Lewis broke his right hand and also wanted to punish Tyson a bit. You can't shade Mike tho. Tough son of a gun. He took tremendous punishment this fight.

 

It was way too late for Mike, he was shot and not interested in fighting at that point. Steward was right to be on Lewis about finishing him as he knew Tyson could land a bomb on Lewis fragile chin.

 

Tyson was totally shot and Lewis was still scared to death of him to the point that his corner was screaming at him to go after him. Says a lot about both guys.

 

Tyson had stopped Jullius Francis and Lou Savarese, who were levels below Lennox Lewis but Lewis' suspect chin combined with Tyson's still existing power and half-speed made this a must see event for a boxing super fangirl like me. My brother in law's grandfather was supposed to be on his last legs so he and my sister flew to his supposed to be death bed and left me some money behind which they said I could use it for the fight if I wanted to, and I did! The old man got better and lasted about nine more years, thank God for that.

Tyson rocked Lewis in the first but after the second I knew it was over for him. A formality. It was a bit better, action wise, than Holmes-Ali or Louis-Marciano, but not by much.

It was entertaining..dont get me wrong..for 8 rounds we still had to have our eyes on the screen becaus,e how about if Tyson landed another one like in the first?

But it left us with the question: what if they had fought when they were both in their primes? We'll never know.

I think Lewis was technically sound enough to fend off Tyson but then again, my brain goes "hello, Oliver McCall!" when I think that.

 

For knowledgeable people it was merely a big circus. A spectacle rather than a real super-fight. Tyson was completely shot and completely out of condition - and i doubt he even wanted to be there in the first place. He was a big name being fed to Lewis, for a payday for them both. He knew he had virtually no chance. Lewis was a bit past his best too. It was one-sided. It was sad really. Yes, Lewis could have put his foot on the pedal sooner and taken him out around round 4. I was impressed with Tyson for taking his beating like a man and not fouling out. Which says it all about the quality of the match and my expectations.

 

The ref was atrocious and seemed intent on disqualifying Lennox. He warned him every time he looked hard at Tyson, took a point away for knocking Mike down lol.

To me, part of the reason Manny is being in Lennox’s face so much is to get him to get Tyson out there before Eddie Cotton could DQ him, seeing they were up against Mike and the ref.

I think even the ref gave up when Mike basically quit trying.

 

What stood out to me watching was how hard Lewis was hitting Tyson but also when Tyson was pressuring he was having odd bits of success.

It wasn't the same Tyson but a win is a win and it still counts a positive for Lewis.

 

Tyson was SIXTEEN years removed from winning his first championship and twelve years from losing it to Douglas. Throw a stint in prison in there and Lewis beat a faded man.

Granted a faded man still named Tyson but the blueprint was clear. By that point Mike couldn't really go past four rounds. Tie him up, wear him out.

 

Mike was a year younger and had fought about 20 fewer rounds.

Lennox was 11 years removed from winning his first title and had been in more competitive/tough fights on the way to the title than Tyson.

I’d say Mike had really only been in four tough, physical fights where he took any kind of significant damage up to that point — Evander I and Buster losses and the two Ruddock fights. I think he was more diminished from his own doing than from ring wear and tear relative to Lennox, who lived cleaner, took better care of his own body (including training harder) and stayed focused on his craft more.

Lennox went to arguably the best trainer in the world, Emanuel Steward, and said ‘I’ll do whatever you prescribe, make me better.’ Mike basically took on trainers of convenience who couldn’t really make him work hard and who had no real credtials apart from Richie Giachetti … and even Richie probably couldn’t force him to do the hard stuff.

Tyson’s decline and problems were due to own choices, not inevitable due to age (mid-30s may not be prime but it doesn’t have to be ‘he only has 4 rounds in him on a good day’ as numerous fighters have shown.