First Bruno fight for me,getting caught to easily, head movement going out of the window. Tyson would possibly have lost if had been in with a different guy in there, someone with more mobility, good chin and more confident.
The signs were there against Bruno in 1989. We don’t need the poll, because we all know that he was a completely different fighter pre-prison, let alone post-prison. Why would you have added the Lewis fight to the poll?
Douglas fought an incredible fight in addition to being a huge and talented guy and he showed that Tyson was slipping more because of rudderless , insufficent training. King wrestled him from Clayton, Rooney was long gone and so was Mikes focus. He’d never be the same fighter again on the Berbick to Spinks level.
Discussion worthy points. It takes a lot of heart as you to say to accept a beating like a man. But it takes even more heart to fight hard to win in those circumstances. The famous coward Teddy Atlas likes to say tyson never overcame adversity to win...id say look at the botha fight..
Yeah I agree. It was all downhill from the Spinks fight. Mentally, physically, psychologically he reached the peak in that fight, the undisputed, undefeated and unbeatable heavyweight champion of the world, the pound for pound greatest fighter in the world and when was the last time before or after Tyson a heavyweight was ranked by just about everyone as the greatest p4p fighter in the world? There was only way tto go after that and the way his personal life fell apart after that and the split with Rooney in hindsight was all a sign that he would never be as good again.
Mike Tyson's decline in some ways reminds me of the Rocky Movie with Tommy Morrison(Tommy Gunn). The fictional character in the movie was wrestled away by the Don King like promoter, he was introduced to a flashy female, given tons of money, he then lost the fire to succeed. Also Mike did climb to the peak of the mountain and did not care any more.
Weaver rocked him far worse with that punch. In fact, though I generally think Tyson and Weaver were about even as punchers in general, Weaver probably had a slight edge on the hook. Of course, Tyson was an overall far better fighter.
Tyson adapted really well in that bout, Tucker was posing problems and ws the tallest boxer Mike ever fought while he was champ, the Spinks fight was Mike at his peak.
Some guys on this sight seemed to think Mike as still in the same mode he was when he fought Holy and point towards the Golota fight to prove Mike still had a lot left.
It was Bruno for whatever reasons. He was off for awhile and came back, but that left hook in round one was the moment people knew he was not the same defensive fighter as before. He got sloppy and didn't take boxing with the same intensity.
