I vote yes. He was being badly put on the back foot by Botha who kept smothering him and Tyson was struggling to let his hands go and land any effective punches and he looked awfully rusty and he did not look capable of landing even one single punch that night until he found that one special moment of an opening which he managed to exploit perfectly in 2-3 seconds. Botha still to this says had he not gotten careless and sloppy he would have won that fight Ettiene for me for as even bigger lucky punch as Mike was just swinging wildly and his timing was all gone at this point, he just miraculously hit the target by fluke that night
No. It's not a lucky punch if you mean to throw the punch that connected. The fact you are losing a fight at the time does not magically render it a lucky punch. Mike Tyson knows what he is doing when he throws. That punch he landed against Botha, just for example, was as opposite of a lucky punch as you could possibly get. Just look at it. He saw the opening and hit him with a right cross. It was a very simple short punch.
Also just reminded myself of the Etienne KO video. Again, clearly not lucky. It was a very typical Tyson close quarters punch. I thought for a while that Danny Garcia's first knock down of Amir Khan was a lucky punch. He threw while his eyes were closed and his face looking in a different direction. Then someone pointed out that's who he throws his left hook, and when I checked this out I noticed he did this a lot.
A heavy weight with who made a career out of Knocking people out throws a lucky punch??? Was Andy Lee's KO of John Jackson a lucky punch? Nah, maybe not the most well timed but Mike still had to find the power and range to put the guys down and out. That is a skill in itself
Of course they weren't lucky punches. Tyson meant to throw them both times, and both times he landed. I can't really think of any lucky punches in boxing. The closest that springs to mind is the left hook that Jorge Castro landed on John David Jackson, but even so he meant to throw it with the intention to knock Jackson out and he did (or at least knocked him down, leading to a stoppage). Depends on your definition of luck I suppose. Personally I only like to use it for fluke injury wins that weren't caused by the opponent, like Martin vs Glazkov. As for lucky punch, the only time you could say that would be if the fighter had their eyes closed and had no idea where they were aiming. If anyone could find a video of that happening I'd welcome them to post it here.
happens alot with heavyweights who are punchers. just look at the abuse wilder got (pre fury 2) "he was losing until he landed a big punch" isn't that the point ? lol
Yes but that applies to every fighter who wins via KO. Everyone knows that no fighter is ever 100% because you can't put your body through 8-12 weeks of gruelling training in preparation for a fight without picking up injuries along the way. So in a sense they're lucky they didn't suffer a serious injury in camp that impaired their movement to such a degree that they were incapable of throwing the KO punch.
This. Tyson knew exactly what he was doing. However, by 1999 Tyson’s timing just wasn’t what it used to be and his hand speed had also greatly diminished by the late 90’s.
