Very interesting quora thread: https://www.quora.com/Between-Mike-...-a-fight-if-both-fighters-were-in-their-prime Also foreman repeatedly publicly stated tyson ducked him and tyson never denies or corrects him. He also said live on david letterman's show that he guarrantees he'd KO tyson in 2 rounds or less: This content is protected A good video breaking down the debate: This content is protected
I don't think there's mush debate, Tyson watched tons of film and Cus knew Mike couldn't handle George Foreman. His style was all wrong, if Mike couldn't back up a past his prime Evander , George bounces him like a ball
If somebody calls you out for years and talk about how they are going to knock you out and you don't fight them even though it would mean a big pay day then you ducked them. Tyson clearly didn't want to fight Foreman.
After knocking out Adilson Rodrigues who ranked #10 in the WBA amd demolishing Gerry Cooney. Did you watch the letterman interview? They were in serious talks with Don King and even got a $5 million dollar offer. Then another deal was discussed after Foreman beat Moore but for some reason Tyson just wasn't interested. It's well documented that the two camps tried to make this fight happen and their names combined would have been a blockbuster payday.
Yeah, I've heard all the stories from all angles, the Cus story, George's opinion, ad nauseum. Realize that Mike was the goose laying the golden egg beyond his championship days. George beat Rodrigues after Mike got beat by Douglas. I don't exactly think facing Foreman as a comeback bout would have been a good idea. The fact that Mike had worked up to two bouts with the young, very dangerous and essentially undefeated (minus an asthma attack) Ruddock within 9 months speaks volumes for Tyson's enthusiasm for good competition. It's at worst a wash (in the most liberal interpretation) between Ruddock and Foreman. When Foreman beat Moorer, Tyson was in an Indiana pen. Again, I don't think one's first opponent after 3 years in the joint should be any version of George Foreman. By the time Tyson had got his wheels back on (or at least had faked it enough for the masses), Foreman's wheels had come off. The timing just wasn't right in any of this.
This is actually a fairly level headed and reasonable response. I was like 6 years old at the time so I'll let someone who was following boxing address the bad timing thing but what you wrote makes sense.
Yes, he ducked George. George unretired because he felt he could beat Mikey. Tyson could have fought him. Fighting in 1995-1997: He could've fought Lennox sooner (but paid $4 mil to step aside) He could've fought Tua between 95' (instead fought McNeely, Mathis, Seldon & Bruno) Could've fought Mercer who took on Holy & Lewis back to back, then Tim Witherspoon who was on a 4 year win streak until Merciless Mercer who went a win streak from 98-2002. Botha, Norris, Fransis? This due turned pro at age 28! Retired 23-24-1. Add on Savarese & this is clearly the cherriest tree he could cherry pick from. Manchester, Glasgow, Copenhagen , he fought there IMO to stay the heck away from real fighters. Tyson IMO could have beaten George with at least Giachetti, but King stripped him of the last to tell Tyson to his face, what needs to be done to win. Without Rooney, Atlas or Ritchie? Tyson probably abruptly leaves the ring vs George, just like Andrew Golota vs Mike
In work so haven't watched the clips but ironchamp done a thread on it a while back, also a poster called Azzer83 or85 done one as well (I think) https://www.boxingforum24.com/threads/tyson-ducked-foreman-lewis.264360/
I've always been 50/50 on the Tyson-Foreman situation. Sure Foreman crushed Frazier BUT, an obese much shorter Dwight Qawi, was bouncing punches off Foreman's head for nearly 8 rounds before running out of gas. If it were Tyson landing those same shots, Foreman would have been in a lot of trouble.
Jap, Cooper really wanted this fight from the beginning. To bad he didn´t make it past Regie Gross, Everett Martin, Nate Miller and needed 12 against Tillman after putting him down in round 1, fighting in the 190 CW limit alot of the time. I bet Tyson wet his pants thinking about that fight.... I don´t know for George Foreman, but there´s an postfight interview of Tyson I just can´t find right now. Maybe he was on stage for another fight.
