I saw the fight when it happened on tv live. But oh man I watched the fight again for the first time in years Tyson Way shot. I do not know how anyone thought tyson could win. dude was way past his best. that fight was a disgrace the build up and the fight
It was a masochistic performance. Tyson seemed to absorb punches with plessure even thanking Lewis for all the punishment. I don´t know what you´re asking about. But I saw Tyson perform against Brian Nielsen in Copenhagen. And he looked better on Nielsen than in the gymn punching the bag. Nielsen was an easy target - moving less than the bag. When he send Nielsen to the floor in round 3 - I expected Tyson to finish Nielsen. But the fire was gone - he was tired and Nielsen could´nt do any harm - so Tyson just went on punching the bag. Tyson was a shot fighter then. He spend his energy outside the ring having a party or five in Copenhagen. He was a frustrated and scared punk when he took a bite of Lewis´ leg. He knew his only chance of hurting Lewis was to eat him. He did´nt and did´nt try to - in the ring. Lewis did what he had to - kept the fight alive fo some rounds and then finished the ghost of Tyson. I´m still to young to have felt the excitement while Tyson was knocking out everybody. He looks good in a couple of fights. But for the most he seems to me to be a frustrated, unorganized punk - doing well to become a champiion at a young age but then fading out early and never regaining the greatness that made him the strongest man on the planet for a short time.
After reading Tyson`s book and understanding how much he was using coke... Truth be told it`s amazing he lasted as long as he did...
I tried to delude myself into thinking Tyson had a chance, but deep down I knew his chances were slim. I actually picked Lewis in 8, one of the few times I got the round right.
At that point it was all about the money and had absolutely nothing to do with settling who was the best in the world. I don't even think Mike thought he had a chance going into it.
Anyway, I don't think anyone was deluded enough to have believed Tyson was anything more than a shell of what he once had been. The luster on that Kid Dynamite mystique had long eroded. In fact, most of what I remember as far as word-of-mouth hype for Tyson vs. Lewis is "Well at least we're getting it, period, though it almost seems to not matter now coming this late..." The prevailing sense I think was that maybe, just maybe, Lewis was approaching the point of being just as shot. Ripe for the picking, at least for a big puncher, which Tyson of course still had the reputation of being. Looking at most recent impressions during the lead-up, in the year prior you had Tyson vs. Nielsen (his only performance of 2001) where Tyson looked offensively sloppy and even at times uncertain, reflexes dulled to maybe 2.5x slower than in his prime, his peekaboo now cumbersome and failing to remain fixed in place for more than a couple of seconds with Super Brian easily clocking him with hooks on the brain pan and even telegraphed 1-2s served like a martini luge into Tyson's gullet, all from the very start, with Tyson's gas tank full. Then, however, that same year saw Lewis going 1-1 with Rahman. Yes, he avenged the loss in authoritative fashion and looked sharp doing it, but the lingering aura of defeat still hung over him and nobody thought even a faded Mike was too much less dangerous than Rock. He was his fattest ever to date in Rahman I and while he came into the rematch in "better" shape he still weighed more than any time up through his rivalry with Holyfield.
I always had the impression that Lennox could have ended it a few rounds earlier had he chose to do so. It was nothing to do with him being hesitant either. More a case of wanting to punish Tyson owing to Mike's leg biting shenanigans in the build up.
Yeah, that's a popular feeling a lot of people share; I'm not sure if Lennox has ever come out and confessed to it, though?
[yt]m2GQKSb3M88[/yt] [yt]Rz7O2jLKQFc[/yt] I think if you just telescope in on these showings, and didn't have any idea who either man was or the context heading in, and were told "Alright, both of these happened last year and the little bald rhino fella is going to be taking on the lanky guys with dreads" you might be inclined to give the little bald rhino a puncher's chance. :think Of course, when you factor in context (Tyson had been on a long slide; Lewis had for seven years gone undefeated and been the division kingpin and came back to avenge that KO loss immediately) it becomes increasingly difficult to see anybody rationalizing a Tyson pick. Even lumping anything more than small change on Tyson can't have seemed a wise investment (Mike was +170 to beat Lennox outright and just a hair under double money to knock him out...) ...but, just playing devil's advocate, that image of the champ's Princess Leia bun juxtaposed over the Budweiser logo was still fresh and probably hard for some to shake (despite having been riposted just months later with the striking image of Hasim wearing his "DON" halo), even with a realistic acceptance of how far Tyson had fallen in the decade since his immortality bubble was burst.
At the point of the Lewis fight I was long past taking Tyson seriously. Every fight seemed to be a circus and it was clear he didn't want to be there in any of them. His confidence was gone, you could see the concern on his face if a guy lasted more than two rounds with him. My view was that after the bite fight Tyson died as a real fighter. I wanted to believe he could come back but the reality was clear, he was just a mess mentally and wanted to self destruct. I was a big fan of Mike's so was dreading the Lewis fight, I expected further humiliation and more circus shenanigans from the former great. But truth be told I was proud of the man in how he handled defeat. I expected him to lose but I expected this to happen in a very bad way, possible biting Lewis's nut sack off or something. But in loss he was dignified, he knew the reality, that he didn't stand a chance, so he accepted the beating instead of trying to get out of it. He did himself a lot of favours because he showed he could accept losing like a man. Ok he didn't prove much as a fighter but I was relieved for him as he seemed at peace, rather than the raging manic he was after Holy 2. The thing that really annoys me about this fight is the fact that whenever Lewis talks about it he seems to avoid the fact that Tyson was past his best, who is he kidding? I'm not saying that its a given that prime Mike would have taken Lennox out but you cannot use their actual fight as a measuring stick, Iron Mike was long gone.