Which fight did Mike Tyson take the most punishment?

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The answer is whoever's the hardest puncher of the bunch, and it's clearly Lewis

 

Douglas. His record is deceptive and he's a very hard puncher (not 1 punch KO power but more of the thudding variety). McCall rated him as the hardest puncher he fought. And Douglas basically tee'd off on Mike the entire fight.

Lewis is probably next as he wore Tyson down and KOd him, followed by Evander.

 

I would say Lennox, he damn near killed the boy. Opened up some slits that looked like an extra set of eyes on the iron Mike.

 

Probably Lennox but Evander was ****ing him up pretty good until Mike took the cowards way out and it him. That will go down as one of the most cowardly moves in boxing history. Disgrace to the sport.

 

James Buster Douglas, Feb 11 1990, Tokyo, Japan.

 

Razor Ruddock fights were dramatic Razor hit Tyson with his Mule kick power and although he buckled Mike- Mike showed heart and courage but some of those would have aged him for later fights.
Teddy Atlas said Tyson never won (or couldn't) v adversity in the ring - I think the Ruddock fights showed he did have the heart of a champion.

 

On a lighter note, Tyson admitted he likes how much people take earbiting picture s with him, hence after he showed remorse, he essentially enjoyed the bite night fight!

 

Douglas certainly didn't take "years off his gas tank and his prime." That's a gross over exaggeration. He seemed to recover relatively well, in his following bouts, he wiped out Tillman and Miteff inside a round, and later actually looked better than he did against Douglas when he faced Ruddock.

 

Maybe Tyson should have fought Amos McCoy of tv's The Real McCoy's with his mule punch.

 

It’s hard to not like Tyson today. He seems like a mellow dude who has his life together. I’m happy for him.

 

Mike’s corner should’ve stopped the Douglas fight in round 9 when it was clear Tyson had nothing left in the tank, was wobbling from many of Douglas’s hits and wasn’t going to beat Douglas even after knocking him down.

That said I don’t think it was a damaging fight as he appeared to be the same in his following 4 fights where he comparatively didn’t sustain much damage. It was only after the 1st Holyfield fight that he appeared damaged because his movement and ability to absorb punches was noticeably diminished when he fought Holyfield the 2nd time. The strength of his teeth however didn’t diminish as Holyfield will tell you.

I think his time in prison was something of a blessing in hindsight when it came to health. It gave him time to recover from whatever damaged he sustained from the Ruddock fights, much like how it was for Foreman who didn’t box for 10 years before getting back into it.

 

Douglas was bad, but Lewis was a harder puncher...after five rounds the latter started to look like torture porn to me.

Holyfield both smacked and butted the living hell out him.

 

The Douglas and Lewis fights stand very close together but I’d still take the Douglas beat down.

Douglas could punch very hard absolute but sometimes certain stylistic meshes and dimensional differences can lead to even greater leverage and power on one’s shots.

I think Buster might’ve also enjoyed the aforementioned advantage atop his generally displayed punching power otherwise. His uppercut certainly fit well into the jigsaw puzzle.

I should say though that Mike’s own uppercut in round 8 was extraordinary. A beautiful shot but one executed after already having been pounded over the previous 7 rounds and on an opponent who was some 6 inches taller and 12 inches better reached than himself.

Not exactly the choice punch for Mike v Douglas when calculated on paper but Tyson’s abilities allowed him to often transcend his dimensional limitations - and just as often in very dramatic fashion.