"The $100,000,000 Fight", Tyson-Holy '91, Ring Magazine Tactical Analysis

"The $100,000,000 Fight", Tyson-Holy '91, Ring Magazine Tactical Analysis.

Courtesy of ESB member Sangria, who kindly scanned this article from his December 1991 issue of "The Ring", & emailed me the scans.

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My Initial Thoughts:

I object to writing-off Tyson once if it went past 8 rounds, in fact if he did enough body punching (which Mike was a big fan of in '91), I could envisage him being the stronger man late too. They talk of Tyson “losing much of his effectiveness” after 8 rounds, but I believe they got this only from the Douglas fight (in which he had questionable conditioning, & only looked non-lethargic in round 8, before completely gassing in round 9), if they'd thought back to the recent Tyson-Ruddock rematch, they'd have recalled a supremely conditioned Mighty Mike who had trained like a demon. In the brutal slugfest of Tyson-Ruddock II, he fought ferociously with a raging fury for the first 6 rounds, slowed down somewhat during rounds 7 to 9, but then was impressively refreshed in rounds 10 to 12, despite suffering 3 broken ribs from absorbing monstrous bombs to his body. Against Tucker, while not a war, Tyson was greasy-fast for the entire 12.

Another statement I disagree with is Tyson's guard “dropping” in the late rounds. It didn't drop against Ruddock, & again Douglas he actually forgot to us his guard for the first 6 rounds, before realising the beating he was receiving in round 7, from which point he attempted to protect his badly swollen left eye, awoke from his slumber in the 8th to fight back hard, hurting Buster a few times & flooring him for 13 seconds, but Mike was totally exhausted from round 9, thus his horrendous beating resumed.

Their predicted outcome; Tyson TKO8 Holyfield in a brutal war is one I find very possible, although I could also imagine Tyson taking a 7-5 decision, or for that matter Holy taking a close decision instead.

 

This is a chance for me to re-post my big post about why a Tyson-Holy fight in '91 would've been a different fight.

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This is why I would favour Tyson to defeat Holy in the originally planned '91 bout, as opposed to their '96 fight:

1. Strategic/technique reasons:

Holy: Around '91 he was very easy to drag into a brawl and this would play perfectly into Tyson's style, just look at his unnecessarily tough wars with Cooper, Dokes, Foreman & Stewart. Whereas in '96 Holyfield was at his best from a technical perspective thanks to Tommy Brooks. Holy countered Tyson's predictable, singular, loaded-up, telegraphed right hands and opted to constantly grapple & out-muscle Tyson rather than brawling with him.

Tyson: In '91 he showed quality headmovement for some periods against Ruddock and also some brutal combinations, this was practically absent by '96 (& what little headmovement he did do was slow & sloppy). It is also vital to mention that in '91 Tyson possessed a great, debilitating body-attack (Holyfield is vulnerable to powerful body punching, shown by him being hurt by the three power-punches to the body Tyson landed in the fight), whereas he was basically a mindless headhunter in '96, who looked for one big punch (a terrible strategy against the titanium-chinned Holy) & had awful, ragged defense. Trainers should be noted, in '91 Tyson was trained by Giachetti who could offer solid advice in the corner, especially important when times got tough, while in '96 he was trained by incompetent fool Jay Bright.

2. Physical reasons:

Holy: Indeed young Holyfield had better stamina, speed, footwork & reflexes in '91, but he was physically far more suited for facing Tyson in '96. By then he was heavier, stronger, more durable and more powerful. These attributes were needed to absorb Tyson's power-punches and manhandle him in the frequent grappling initiated by himself. Also Holy became flat-footed as he aged, he incorporated ramming headbutts into his arsenal.

Tyson: In '91 he was supremely conditioned for 12 rounds of brutal war, this conditioning also meant better durability and recuperative abilities. I'd confidently pick Tyson to be the strongest in '91 too. Tyson had sharp timing for delivering some devestating counters in '91, but post-prison it never appeared impressive. For Holyfield I in '96 he was the worst conditioned he would be until 2001. This meant he only had a mere 5 rounds of stamina before gassing badly in the 6th.

3. Mental reasons:

Holy: Although always fighting with the mentality of a warrior, Evander was mentally even stronger in '96. After losing the titles to Moorer in '94, he was very determined to become a 3rd time HW Champion against the odds.

Tyson: In '91 Tyson was mentally properly prepared by Giachetti for long, grueling wars as seen against Ruddock. His mental preparation for a rough, tough fights can be seen as he walked through bombs (Ruddock I & II) & traded big lowblows in Ruddock II (in contrast he could barely mentally cope with one lowblow in round 6 against Holy in '96 & offered no retaliation to it or the butts). In addition, Tyson had big respect for Holy then as a great fighter, so he wouldn't have underestimated him. In '96 Tyson subscribed to the common belief that Holy was shot & washed-up, thus he expected an early round walk in the park. This is clearly what he was prepared for; just look at him get up in round 6, gassed & hurt, to become a punching bag with little will to win. It won't have helped him mentally coming back to his corner in a tough battle, to find the Don King useless circus of fools either. The mentally ill-prepared Tyson was evidently extremely frustrated & helpless to counter the dirty tactics of Holy in rounds 6 & 7, which focused on leading with his head to target the orbital bone. The '91 Tyson would not only mentally cope with butts, he'd also retaliate with lowblows & elbows.

4. Experience reasons:

Holy: Prior to the originally planned November 8th '91 bout, Holy had a record of 8-0 at Heavyweight. In the 5 years from '92-'96 Evander's Heavyweight experience increased at an exponential rate. He'd had 12 hard rounds with Holmes, 10 hard rounds with Mercer and 32 rounds of brutal war with Bowe, plus 29 (36 including Cooper in November '91) rounds with others.

Tyson: Back in '91 Tyson was a highly experience Heavyweight with a record of 40-1 compiled in 7 years. Due to his 4 year 2 month layoff (including 3.5 years rotting in prison), Tyson had only fought 17 minutes in the ring in the 5.5 years leading up to Holyfield I, meaning he was severely rusted.

 

Hey Threetime, you should check-out my recent commentary on Holy-Tyson I:

http://www.eastsideboxing.com/forum/showpost.php?p=8769550&postcount=663