very forgotten about and underrated performance. for all those who say that buster douglas was the first guy to give tyson trouble want to watch this fight. tucker really did box lovely for the first 6 rounds. he landed some lovely right hands and uppercuts tyson showed great patience to overcome tuckers slickness and skills
And Tucker had a broken hand coming into that fight. He was a very good fighter when he was straight. Drug problems probably kept him from accomplishing more.
Not again. Tucker barely won a round or two. This was the epitome of a fighter giving up the ghost swiftly, believing there wasn't a chance in hell he'd cause an upset.
Yes, these clowns that always pick against prime Tyson in mythical fights because of `mental weakness` are mental midgets themselves, obviously Tyson was not only better physically in his prime than he was when past it but he was a much happier person & had no problems with pressure at that point, he was focused, when a man is depressed or has worries, that can lead to problems in a ring, when his live is sound & going well, he will perform better physically & deal with things better mentally..... its not ****in rocket science. I find it hard to get my head around the fact that people actually believe a prime Tyson would crumble if faced with a hard fight... that sure as **** wasnt what they were saying when he was being proclaimed possibly the GOAT.... short memories can work wonders eh ?
tysons jabs in th elater rounds were pretty solid boxing. reminds me of him boxing and countering against mathis and norris
What about those people who try to claim Tyson was past his prime at a time when he was still being proclaimed as possibly the GOAT? Using the very same logic, you must also be thinking those people are suffering from memory loss as well, correct?
Tyson at only the age of 21, did a very good job at handling a much larger, more mature, fighter who was undefeated in many bouts by that point. Sure, Tucker's record was padded. No getting around that. But, I think his abilities and athleticism were better than his record showed. part of his problem was that he was being passed over by fighters who wanted nothing to do with. Spinks forfeited his title to take on Cooney rather than face Tucker, and years later Foreman followed in his footsteps. Tyson's critics use the overstated notion that his tendency to fade late would always be his undoing in fantasy head to head matchups. Don't know if I agree. The Tucker and Ruddock fights are two examples in which he stayed busy against two very large and strong heavyweights over 12 rounds, and won convincingly. At only the age of 19, he outpointed a 28 year old 6'5 mitch Green over 10 rounds, and pounded the living **** out of the durable Jose Ribalta as well. Tyson's weaknesses were all in his head and none of them really came into play until his life, family,career, and managment team all came falling down at once.
Im with everyone that says Tucker's performance in this fight is overrated. Tucker hit Tyson with an uppercut that lifted Tyson off his feet and Tyson kept coming forward immediately after that punch landed. Tucker hit Tyson with some of his best shots early, saw that nothing was happening, and deflated. This fight showed how the idea that 'if Tyson couldnt KO an opponent he was lost' is bull****. In his prime Tyson went to work and was ready to go the distance if he had to.
Good post. I think it also to a point dispels the notion that Tyson struggled against tall fighters. Green, Tucker, Ribalta, Biggs etc. all stood 6'5" or more. The guy Tyson struggled most with was Holyfield, and he was only 6'2". He also looked quite poor against Buster Mathis jnr, who wasn't even 6 feet tall.
True, and it should also be noted that both Holyfield and Tyson were past their best when those fights came off, so who knows what would have happened 6 years earlier. As for the Mathis fight, he was only the second opponent that Tyson had faced since 1991 when they met in 1995.
I would say Tyson did worse against shorter fighters throughout his career, contrary to what many think. He became so good at nailing fighters from a crouch, because a lot of them had to lean in to throw punches down to him, whether a jab or a power punch, it was easier for him to counter.
I forgot about that...it may explain Tyson's lack of timing for a spell there. It's funny, but Mathis was saying he was in no way intimidated of Tyson, in fact he and Tyson went way back together, and were on friendly terms. Mathis even visited Tyson the day before the fight, in his dressing room, which caused Buster's handlers to hit the roof as you'd imagine. What's interesting is that Mathis said Tyson just looked so small, compared to a Bowe for instance. He was actually quite amused by it.