Lewis v Tyson 2002

Its never been said but i believe Tyson trained much harder for the Lewis fight than he did for Douglas/Holyfield I fights.

He simply couldnt do what he was able to do when he was younger.

Lennox's win over Tyson is severley overrated.

 

I don't reckon that anyone really uses it to determine the greatness of Lewis.

 

Youll be surprised

I often hear (in the same sentence)

Tyson is overated, who did he ever beat?
Lewis is great, he beat the likes of Holyfield, Tyson and Vitali Klitskcho

 

actually it is the pure truth , if we are talking in legacy not h2h

 

It was a disgrace of a fight. Lewis is so over-rated it makes me sick. It took him almost 8 rounds to beat a Tyson "that to say was way past his prime would be the understatement of the century". Just imagine what an '87 or '88 version of Mike would've did to Lewis. Lights out for fun! Imo, Lennox Lewis easily makes the top 10 list of most over-rated HW champs in history.

 

Funny you don't mention the age of Lennox or the fact he retired a year later...

 

Lewis peaked late, and had a style that aged well. Don't get me wrong, i'm not necessarily saying that he was an altogether bad fighter; just that he is seriously over-rated.

 

I don't even want to talk about this. Everyone knows this was not even a real fight. The fact that this fight was allowed to happen is a major disgrace.

Saturday, June 8, 2002 was the day boxing started to die.

 

Agreed. Imo, Lewis should feel more disgraced and embarrassed than Tyson for this fight.

 

How can Tyson be a great win for anyone if hes overated?

 

You call training in Hawaii and getting photographed smoking pot training hard? He also didnt have the sense to keep Tommy Brooks who he had not lost a fight with. Id say Tyson would have had a better chance had he taken the fight more seriously, taken it shortly after dispatching Savarese and Golota and kept Brooks on board but it still would have been a tall order.

 

Lewis was considered at his best later in his career. Holyfield and Tyson were proven corpses by the time Lewis beat them. Maybe not Holyfield as much, but look at Holyfield in the subsequent fights after Lewis. Going life and death with John Ruiz getting beat up by Chris Byrd and James Toney.

Tyson was done when he got out of prison. He still had his punch and a little bit of speed but his technique was horrendous and he never got it back, yet Holyfield cemented his legacy on beating up Tyson, even after getting thoroughly outclassed by Lennox the runner Lewis and beat by the counterpunching sloth Michael Moorer.

 

I think tyson feared lewis, he knew he was going to get his ass kicked as Lewis was in form, so he trained as hard as he could (which wasnt much), i dont think he trained too hard for Douglas and Holyfield because he thought he would walk over those guys.

Whenever Tyson feared or respected an opponent, he trained hard.
Spinks, Ruddock, Bruno 2, Holyfield 2, he came in tremendous shape for these fights. Compare his chunky shape in the first Holyfield fight and the fact that he looked away during the Bruno staredown in the first fight, signs to me that he hadnt been training much.

 

Hawaii, smoking pot. That tells me he didnt train at all. You dont go to Hawaii to train for a heavyweight championship. You dont go into a fight like the Lewis fight with a new trainer. Especially with Ronnie Shields who is not very good in my opinion. I agree Tyson feared Lewis, and with that I think he did his best to get his weight down and look respectable (instead of the blimp that showed up to fight Nielson), but I dont think he believed he had a chance and by the second round, he gave up. He even admitted he didnt want the fight and that he had to take it to pay bills. I think Tyson was done with boxing even before he went to jail. I think he wanted to fight Holyfield in 91, but I dont think he wanted to box after going away. It was easy money for him so he did it.