Tyson didn't get hurt there. He was back on his feet in 2 seconds And yes, in football, hockey, basketball etc you can get injured during practice.
When people rag on fighters for getting dropped in sparring sessions it has nothing to do with potential injury. The point is that a bad sparring session doesn't (necessarily) imply that your career is in free fall, but fans will jump all over it as such. Just a reason to talk **** and shoot somebody down, something boxing fans are better at than just about any fanbase on earth. (Of course, in this case, it likely did portend Tyson's lack of concentration...)
Granted but none of your examples were about possible injuries. There are too many examples of practice or exhibition injuries that have ended or seriously impacted playing careers for me to name them all. I remember a kid for the Indians that took a line drive off his toe, altered his pitching motion, screwed up his arm and faded into oblivion. But you're are correct that some people make too much of a bad sparring session.
Yeah, but if an athlete is consistently doing badly in practice, then it's a sign it might carry over to when it's not practice. If my man Jose Reyes has a couple of practice sessions in a row where he can't field a single ground ball, people will be wondering what's up, especially if he then goes out and makes three errors in a World Series game right afterward. Similarly, if, say, Tiger can't get his putting to work in practice and then blows it in the last round of a tournament because he misses a punch of putts, do you really think people aren't going to talk about it? Really? Or are they going to say "Oh, it was nothing, and it certainly had no carry over effect, because hey, it was just practice"?
when you spar the volume of rounds that these guys do against world class sparring partners , you are gonna get clipped on the odd occasion .. Greg timed the shot very well and Mike just strolled onto it, he was just a bit embarrassed by it i think..
Yep. It's funny though, both Tyson and Douglas reportedly had very poor sparring in the build-up to their fight. Both looked kinda sluggish. Buster certainly didn't come fight time!
Someone told me years ago that Tyson only showed up to the gym that one day, for the Douglas fight. If that is true I guess he thought he was going to walk through Buster, like the rest of the world. I have heard so many rumors and theories about the Douglas fight that it is funny. One rumor I heard was King and his handlers kept telling him how easy the fight was going to be, and kept him form training too hard. The supposed reason being that Tyson couldnt get interests in his fights anymore....so if he lost one, the interest would be back....and that was why they were in Japan, because no one was interested in the US. In reality though, the beginning of the end was when he went with King, and forgot Rooney!
Yeah you might be right about that..but Tyson had a reputation as a guy who didn't take it easy on his sparring partners..he sent some of them home with broken ribs..etc.