Mike Tyson's slippage in his techincal Skills, a good example

:good

 

ruddock was post douglas, pre prison and importantly he was VERY motivated especially for the second fight. he wanted to win and win big and that was a very dedicated, determined and focused tyson that night. and yet, still nowhere near his best

 

Good and interesting post:think:thumbsup

 

Yeah, I wouldn't use the Bonecrusher fight as a good demonstration of a prime Tyson. In fact, I think that fight says something about today's huge HWs would try to tame him to an extent.

Of course, the usual expectation is that the opponent actually would attempt to win the fight (unlike Bonehugger).

Still, though, I agree with your larger point. I think the Spinks fight was the final fight of the true, prime Tyson.

 

Rooney like D'Amato put a huge emphasis on head and upper body movement, not so much on squaring up, because of Tyson ability to punch so hard. Giachetti tried to get him to be more of a technical fighter while still punching in combinations. Aaron Snowell and jay Bright, didnt care what Tyson did in the ring, because they had no clue. Snowell later became a pretty respectable guy, but at that time, he was not cut out to handle Tyson.

 

what grinds me so much is his DEFENSE in the rooney era. I forget who he was fighting but way back there was a youtube clip of him slipping 34 punches in a row, waiting for the guy to tire, then flooring him with one left hook. his speed and his power are devasting yes, but the reason he posts so high on head 2 head fights is during his true prime his head movement was legendary

 

Your examples are spot on but you can shorten the span between the fights. Tyson's technical skills were eroding as early as the first Bruno fight. The Williams KO masked this but the Douglas showed us that the calculating fighter that Tyson had once been was no more.

By the time Tyson fought Ruddock he was just walking in and eating Ruddock's telegraphed punches. If he didn't have such a good chin he would have went the way of Bonecrusher Smith and Michael Dokes, both of whom Ruddock "smashed."