I agree that his style and physicality ( in a growing heavyweight division ) would have led to a shorter prime. But I think with the right management, better lifestyle choices and no prison sentence, he could have been effective longer than he actually was.
My take is that without the psychological issues, he took little damage, & even with a style built for youth, there was no physical reason he could not have been as good if not 6-8 years, close to that. There is an open question whether that would have been enough to beat peak Bowe & Holyfield-I think it would have been. Especially with Evander not having the same physical strength then, in part because it meemed to be before he hit the PEDs. But with his psychology-& the complaceny that many champs, not all (look at Joe Louis) show when they reach the pinnacle... It seems more likely than not that something would derail him. It was inevitable that the psychopath King would get to him if his team dissolved. D'amato dying, & an expoliter like Robin Givens & her Mother... It just seems that Tyson would not be tough enough inside to maintain that level for many years. But in an infinite # of alternate universes maybe-on average-he maintains it for 2-3 years. Never loses to Douglas. Beats Bowe & Holyfield, each at least once... That, as Janitor said, would be a game changer. Then he likely is a top 3 HW of All Time.
How long would Tyson have needed to remain focused, to make a significant difference to his historical standing? Not all that long in my opinion! Despite his short prime, his resume is already deceptively strong on the metrics by which we measure depth. For example he beat more fighter ranked in the top ten than a lot of great heavyweights, due to his precociousness, and level of activity. If he had managed another four or five defenses against legitimate contenders, then the number of great heavyweights who can reasonably be ranked above him, shrinks significantly. If the man who finally beats him is not Douglas, but Holyfield or Bowe, then it is a case of a great fighter losing to another great fighter, who was merely more advantageously placed. So as others have said, he was always going to implode, but that doesn't mean that history couldn't have been different!
If your life is out of balance then the bill comes due eventually. If he had a functional mother, wasn't sent from juvie to the questionable care of an old gladiator trainer and a convicted armed robber, then he'd basically be Holyfield.
Cus saw a talented easy to manipulate person forlorn of love and stability, He was the perfect person for someone as arrogant and self serving as Cus to manipulate. He loved Mike AFTER he got what he wanted.
Sustaining what Tyson was doing is not really possible ... And his self destruction was part of what and who he was ... he should have went 50-0 and retired as the heavyweight GOAT ... He was mentally fixated on the sport and annihilating the competition I think people seem to forget how unbeatable he looked in his prime ... people literally thought he was iron ... Buster Douglas beating him was the biggest upset in the history of sport, not just boxing A good analogy would be the stars in the sky ... The brightest stars always have the most violent endings ... They burn brightest and hottest for the shortest amount of time ...
They said the exact same thing about Pacquiao. And he's 42 and still fighting elite guys in the division and performing very well.
Absolutely untrue. Besides that we have no idea what happened in that room or if he raped her or not, you must have a huge bias if you do not see the massive decline that preceded that incident. In focus, his personal life unraveling, terrible choices, predatory characters around him including King, losing his original team, losing much of his movement & combinations in favor of head hunting... And the lack of training, motivation & extra curricular whoring around & substances that led to him losing the title in the biggest upset in HW history. Also-if he was stronger mentally, he could have come back from prison & had a second career akin to Ali's.
This is overwhelmingly true. I dunno about 50-0, but it could be... I only complain about my pet peeve of the abuse of the word "literally". To insist on this means that folks actually believed Tyson was not a real man but mae of iron. ;-)
Tyson has stated a few times that the back injury sustained in a car accident prior to the first Bruno fight permanently affected his ability to move from the waist and reduced the effectiveness of the peek a boo style.
I think he'd have remained great, which he was in the 80s, for another 3-4 years, if he'd somehow managed to keep everyone and everything he needed to do so.
I dunno if I think it was quite that malevolent but yeah cus wasnt adopting kids based on need or bc he wanted to be a dad he was training a fighting machine.
Jim jacobs dying was a bigger effect on Tyson going off the rails. Of his management team, it was Jacobs who had the close relationship with Tyson while Cayton was strictly a hands off businessman who Tyson clearly had no respect for. Had Jacobs lived, he would have kept a tight rein on Tyson and I don’t think King would have been able to lure Tyson away as easily as he did. It’s strange how Jacobs nowadays seems to have been erased from Tyson past history. Even Tyson while he doesn’t directly speak badly of Jacobs by name the way he does about Cayton and King,seems to totally ignore him and makes no mention of the influence he had on his life and career.
