Why was Mike Tyson billed the next great heavyweight? What about Larry Holmes?

a 5'10 American heavyweight who becomes heavyweight champion and punches like a mule kick will always be absurdly popular, whether he acts like Mike Tyson or Mother Theresa.

 

In fact, the negative aspects of Tyson didn't even surface much in the mainstream until AFTER the win over Spinks.
There had been a couple of 'incidents' made the papers before that, but generally his image was of a quiet lisping youngster outside the ring, a 'reformed' juvenile delinquent.

 

The phrase "Next Great Heavyweight" implies a prospect. Tyson had a super marketing machine behind him. Even as an amateur he was getting national attention. As a young pro, Cayton and Jacobs made sure local tv news stations got video of his knockouts for airing during sports segments. He made the cover of Sports Illustrated in January 1986, before being ranked. To top it off, Tyson was backing up the marketing with his early career achievements and impressive looking knockouts.

Holmes, by contrast, was more of a working-class fighter. Between working as a sparring partner and quietly plying his trade, he and his management didn't inspire the public to take notice, to declare him a top prospect. Even though he'd been in magazine rankings for awhile, he seemed to come out of nowhere when he looked so good against Shavers in March 1978. Three months later he was a titleholder who then, over a series of defenses, quietly transformed into a great heavyweight while only boxing fans, not the general public, were looking.

 

ghetto trash? whats wrong with being from the ghetto? everyone cant grow up in a gated community with like minded racist such as yourself, but for all intents and purposes Tyson was part of the hip hop culture and its nothing wrong with that, his rise and the rise of hip hop took off around the same time.

 

:good Yeah, and he turned to sh!t around the same time hip hop did too.

Well, hip hop probably started to decline some time in the middle or towards the end of his prison sentence.
In my opinion.

By the time Tyson was biting ears and losing the plot completely, hip hop had fallen off en masse too.

 

Holmes followed immediately after Ali. So the boxing media constantly compared him to Ali. Holmes did have good skills, but was not flashy and his personality was totally different than Ali and created no excitement.

Tyson came around when the heavyweight division was led by a bunch of out of shape underachievers and an aging Holmes. His style of fighting was exciting and he was in excellent shape. He also had an all business look about the way he went about his business in the ring, which was a refreshing change. He had the appearance of someone who would clean out the division, and he did for awhile.

 

Had Ali retired instead of facing Holmes, Larry would've been thought of in a better light even though many fans still believed Ali would've won at the time. Ali was still idolized by millions at that point, and Holmes was easy to cast as the villain in the aftermath of it.

Thanks to that, any time a circumstance came up where Larry could either get the benefit of the doubt or not, he'd always get the shaft...fairly or not.

 

Great comment! :good

 

:good:good

 

I don't believe it's any coincidence that the four best-known to casuals heavyweights were all at their peak when a new broadcast medium became widely available. Louis - radio. Marciano - TV. Ali - colour TV and then CCTV. Tyson - satellite & cable. All of them were promoted to help sell the new technology.

 

uh ok good to know, but hip hop peaked in the late 00's and has slowly slid til its eventual collapse in 06...but thats for sharing i suppose?

 

:huh

 

What ?!!
How could it peak in the late '00s and then slowly slide and collapse in '06 ? That's time travel.

Anyway, you're wrong either way. Hip hop's golden age was done several years before 2000. I'd say roughly 1986-'95 was hip hop's prime years, peak around 1988-'93, most people who know music would roughly agree.
If I had to single out a year, it would be 1991 I guess.

 

Take his ***** out of your mouth

Tyson would have always nailed Holmes with that right hand

Tyson KO Holmes