The first round was the only exciting round of the fight. All three judges gave the round to Mike, but if someone were to give it to Lewis, I'd understand completely. Mike forced the action, but Lewis held his ground and even managed to hurt Mike with a hard uppercut. I feel Lewis would also deserve to win the round just for defending himself well and actually hurting Tyson. Who did you give the round to, and why?
Tyson I'd say. He did more of the quality work. The uppercut which Lennox hurt Tyson with in that round would have barely put a dent in the 1988 Tyson. I aren't really a Tyson fan, but boy did he take some serious punishment in that fight - for having the balls to take it for that long he has my admiration.
What's that supposed to mean? You're saying Lewis didn't bother or Lewis was too negative? Either way, Lewis put on a great performance and, in my opinion, carried Tyson until he decided to put him out of his memory.
No Im saying with Tyson biting Lewis on the leg, and then groping the Wal-Mart worker before getting photgraphed smoking weed in Hawaii and then bringing Panama Lewis in, really was Tyson's way of saying he really wanted no part of fighting Lewis in the first place. It was a miracle Tyson even made it to the first round.
To me Tyson may have won the round but Lewis set the blue print as to how he was going to win the fight. He used upper cuts to hurt Tyson and showed that he could manhandle him if necessary. As to many who critize Lewis for the fight lasting so long, he does claim that he severely hurt his right hand in the first few rounds and it took a couple of rounds before he could accustomize his hand to the pain of throwing his punches with full force. I don't know if this is true or not, but it's plausible. Certainly Tyson showed he could take one hell of a beating.
Yeah the round was close. Tyson might have been more active, but Lewis landed the most effective punch. By the end of the round Tyson was substantially slower and became even easier to hit. A lot of that was due to the monster uppercut Lewis landed. It was kind of like the Botha fight. After about the first minute you could tell Tyson wasnt right. His timing and movement was pretty amatuer looking. If I recall correctly even Emanuel Steward made a comment about how bad Tyson looked between rounds. As far as Lewis, he fought cautiously against dangerous opponents his entire career. He knew he could blast out guys like Mike Grant and Andrew Golota, but that wasnt going to work for Tyson and Holyfield. He did what he always did and waited for the proper moment he felt safest to end the fight, nothing wrong with that considering Lennox Lewis.
Yeah, I got the same impression in the early months of 2002, it seemed like Tyson really didn't want this fight to go ahead but the momentum was in place and even when Las Vegas said "no thanks" it was obvious that somewhere was going to get it and Tyson was gonna get rolled out for one final money-spinning freakshow for the bloodsuckers. Funny thing is, by fight time tons of "experts" were reckoning Tyson was gonna win it !
tyson won it but barely. lewis came on at the end of the rd catching tyson with uppercuts. not suprising, tyson was always know to be a fast starter
If Tyson could of kept this up the fight could of at least been a lot better if he didn't win. But once again when someone takes Mike's best hits and they don't fall his confidence goes down the toilet. After the first round Lennox crucified Mike the entire fight.
Very poignant statement. Tyson knew the hard work and training required to be a champion very well. In the 80's he was known as a gym rat and he trained incredibly hard, if anything because of his insecure tendencies---training hard made him feel confident. He talks about it in his early interviews. He said he hated getting up at 4 AM to run miles and miles, but he did it because he knew the other guy wasn't. In 2002, Tyson knew he wasn't living that lifestyle anymore. The fact that he came in nearly 20 pounds overweight further cements the notion.
