Is Mike Tyson's intimidating aura a real thing that helped him win fights?

Theres a guy posts this stuff regularly on utube, says Tyson was a guy called Roy Lannings , the fights were all staged and fixed by Kings fixer , a guy called Milt Short. If you go on the utube postings of Tysons fights in his prime, it's all there

 

Not to be mean, but looking at that fight I thought two things.

1. He was too stupid to be scared.
   
2. His managers knew that and had a plan to protect him.

His manager Vecchione had a third party quietly meet with a big-time bookie at the Imperial Palace and bet $1 million that McNeeley wouldn't last 90 seconds against Tyson.

This wasn't a lump sum bet made through the sports book; Vecchione was too smart for that. This was a private wager which was then laid off through other bookies, limiting publicity as well as the original bet-taker's liability on a long odds over/under bet (perhaps as much as 20-1).

Vecchione may have been in McNeeley's corner, but he was there for a different reason now. He stopped the fight to make money and make sure Peter didn’t get hurt. Full article below:

http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/68418078/mike-tyson-peter-mcneeley-1995-fight-fixed

 

I don't know why I find this post incredibly funny. It must really suck to have your corner bet heavily against you. I think the more insulting part is that they figured he wouldn't even last 90 seconds.

 

No. His explosive and accurate punches were the main factor.

 

Iron Mike Tyson was a good World Heavyweight champion, but his body language did intimidate, especially his ring attire. He had a nasty looking scowl, with that gold toothed grin. Big George Foreman, and Sonny Liston both had the cold eyed stare, meant to frighten their opponents. Sonny used to stuff his robe with towels to make himself to appear larger than he actually was, he stood at 6"1, weighed 218 pounds. Mike also had the ready to attack speed of hand, to dig those punishing shots to the body and head. He had a good defense taught to him by the late Cus D Amato, who taught Floyd Patterson the famous Peek a Boo style, used by some fighters today. The blue print to defeat Mike was employed by James Buster Douglas, on the night of Feb 11 1990, in Tokyo, Japan. The plan is to jab, use lateral movement, and throw quick combos as Tyson moved in. Then the final part of this plan is to force Mike into the later rounds, as his recent fights did not last very long. A perfect example is the Larry Holmes and the Michael Spinks fights. It is fair to mention that Douglas had nothing to lose before this title winning effort. Tyson appeared over confident before this fight, which can be a recipe for disaster, which many a fighter throughout history have fallen prey to. Iron Mike then became frustrated by this and desperate, a situation he was not accustomed to. Who knows what would have become of him, if he had not suffered that title loss.

 

I don't think so. If a guy is not for real he will land punches and his opponents will say that punch is not that great. I am going to take it him It sounds good to say Tyson won with intimidation, but something made him get that reputation.

 

LOL! You rule, @mark ant

I'm seeing comments calling Mark a Tyson ball-hugger....uhh, I must be missing something because I haven't seen that.

By the same agenda I'd be a Larry ball-hugger I guess. Not that I care. We all have fighters we love.

 

Thomas , Tucker , Biggs, Tubbs,Williams, all went in there to win , I dont think any looked phased initially.

Bruno. Bonecrusher..not sure
Holmes Berbick .. a little
Spinks ..Froze like a pack of peas

 

Tyson psychologically unsettled fighters. Just a little. But a little is enough. The crowd was in awe of him. It all builds atmosphere. Even if in your head you refuse to be intimidated, against fighters like Tyson, the hysteria of the crowd, the spectacle of the situation is something nobody can know they are prepared for until it happens. Tyson fights were big events. It wasn’t a boxing crowd that come to see two fighters. Most of them have bought into the King Kong aspect. They are there to witness a car crash.

A fighter can be as professional as anything but it can still get to him. Max Schmeling admitted as much as he waited for Louis to get into the ring for their rematch.

 

The shadow of Mike Tyson's aura loomed huge!

Going into the Lewis fight, a lot of people (including informed people) seriously thought that he was going to beat Lewis!

After Lewis beat him, it was basically the breakthrough moment for him!

A previously skeptical media, started comparing Lewis to Louis, Marciano, Ali etc!

One magazine around that time remarked that if Lennox Lewis fought Kirk Johnson, and Mike Tyson fought James Toney on the same night, the Tyson fight would draw more interest!

After Lennox Lewis retired, one magazine observed that "the only person who can save the heavyweight division now is Mike Tyson, because people watch him, like when drivers slow down to look at a car crash!"

After Danny Williams beat Tyson, he was moved straight to the front of the row of contenders.

When he got his shot against Vitally Klitschko, nearly half of the experts polled picked him to win, purely because he had beaten Tyson!

Even after this, Tyson remained a huge draw.

All that they had to do was put out a rumor that he was hitting the gym, and taking his training seriously, and suddenly his fans thought that he was back in the mix!

Reality finally hit home after Kevin McBride dumped him on the canvas, but even that opened up significant opportunities for McBride, which he failed to capitalize upon.

 

And too many were scarred to get hit with Tyson.

 

His aura was definitely a thing, especially early on and then later in the 90s. It caused people to either immediately go into survival mode or fight sloppy because they were desperately trying to end it.

The biggest names who weren't usually shaken but seemed truly intimidated were Spinks, Holmes, Bruno, Golota, and Savarese.
Spinks, Golota, and Savarese looked beaten before the first punch landed.

Holmes admitted to saying he figured he wasn't ready and considered not going into the ring. His apprehensiveness showed in the first round and a half of their fight.

Bruno was willing to be in there, but he was more interested in clinching and trying a hailmary punch. He looked more intimidated in their rematch than he did in their first fight, which is interesting considering he rocked Tyson when they first met.

 

It was his aftershave.