Why is the Pinklon Thomas performance not rated higher for Tyson?

One of prime Tyson's tougher opponents. Thomas looked the best he had done since he won the WBC title from Tim Witherspoon three years previously. Good victory for Mike.

 

Very under rated fight. Would have been Intresting to see Thomas of a couple of years previously against Tyson.

 

I have no idea if Thomas was using again before this fight or if he was how much it effected him but I think Pinklon's drug issues are a factor in how the win is rated. Heroin users don't usually blossom when they start using again. Also while perhaps not under consideration to a casual fan I think most of the lost generation of 80s heavies at that time had all been pretty much written off as obese jokes by hardcore fans and we just wanted Mike to clear them out of the way as sacrificial lambs. Of course this is unfair to Pinky who was always in good physical (if not mental) shape but I think any 80s champ not named Larry was tarred with the same brush.

 

Because of his drug issues and he seemed to age 10 years in a 1 year period.

 

Pinklon Thomas is the fighter I regret being lost to the 80's the most. Tied with Tim Witherspoon being dragged by Don King and the likes.

 

I agree with all your points here.

Excellent performance by both men. Mike Tyson was the new, undefeated champion at 29-0. Thomas was the WBC #1 contender at 29-1-1. They both delivered impressive performances. They were both physically and mentally prepared. They'd both fought on the same card about two and a half months earlier. Both had their moments in this one. It's also one of Tyson's greatest highlight reel KOs and Thomas didn't go down easily.

As a fan, there's nothing to complain about at all.

 

Oh God.

All Don King did to Pinklon Thomas was immediately get him fights with the heavyweight contenders and champs of that era - Tillis, Coetzee, Witherspoon, Weaver, Berbick, Tyson and Holyfield - get him ranked, get him multiple title shots, kept him busy, made him a headliner and paid him more money then he ever saw in his life before that.

Back then, when you signed with King, you were going to stay busy, if you weren't headlining you were going be competing on nearly every undercard, you were going to get opportunities, and you better be ready.

And the Tyson fight was a very good performance by Thomas and one of his last with Don King. He retired after that and then came back a year and a half later against Holyfield (in his last fight with King).

Pinklon Thomas was a heroin addict as a young teen. His personal demons are his own. His flaws are his own.

The bad losses to up-and-coming fighters and journeymen were all long after he'd left King when OTHER promoters decided to take advantage of Thomas and his name. Any bad personal life choices he made were his own.

This "lost generation" garbage is just that ... garbage.

This CURRENT heavyweight era is MORE LOST than that one was. There was no "lost generation" in the 1980s. There was this hip drug called cocaine in the 1980s. And, with Thomas, maybe some harder things, too.

 

Has nothing to do with Tyson, Pinklon had lost his belt to Trevor Berbick earlier, a fighter I thought he should have handily beat but he looked off and I recall the drug use rumors began to fly. 3 wins later over low level competition he fought Tyson which began his streak of losing 5 of his next 6 fights. Even at his best he wouldn't have beaten Mike and he might have gone the distance but this wasn't the best version of Pinky and history has judged that to be so.

 

Pinklon Thomas was just as busy as Tyson during the lead-up to their fight. Thomas fought on the Tyson-Berbick undercard in November 1986. Thomas fought on the Tyson-Smith undercard in March 1987. And then they fought in May 1987.

That's probably why it was such a good fight. (If only the top heavyweights were as active today.)

Thomas had drug issues at different times in his life. That wasn't one of them.

 

Read my post again, please. I only mentioned Don King next to Tim Witherspoon, who had notoriously ugly history with the man, as far as I know.

When saying Pinklon Thomas was lost to the 80's, I meant the infamous cocaine crack epidemic with all its disastrous effects on the Black communities, on top of other factors contributing to the creation of the lost generation of heavyweights (some timeless for boxing.) Good point on Pinklon being heroin addict from an early age though. I would still say the reality of the the decade did nothing to help him get better.

 

Pinky had found the way to nullify Tyson…for a few rounds anyway. He utilised that potent jab of his to its full extent, and then smothered Tyson in the clinches.

All this did was delay the inevitable, but to be fair, Thomas looked pretty good doing what he was doing. But let’s not forget, he almost fell victim to the infamous “First Round KO,” but he survived that onslaught and did ok until the predictable vicious ending.

Incidentally one of the guys on the undercard was none other than Buster Douglas…the future Tyson conqueror, who was about to get stopped by Tony Tucker…a future Tyson victim.

Funny ol game boxing, eh.

 

Watch the Berbick Pinklon fight, Thomas was painting Berbicks face with the jab and hooks moving beautifully for the 1st 3 or 4 rounds in control. Pinky's mouth was open by the 5th sucking in air and he'd become stationary ,by the middle of the 6th Ray Leonard doing commentary said Pinklon looks arm weary and it wasn't due to what Berbick was doing either. Larry Merchant a couple of rounds later said, Is Thomas in the kind of shape to go 12 rounds? It's clear he wasn't in shape and the only reason it went the distance is Trevor was so crude. He followed up this loss with 3 wins over nobodies before Tyson lit him up. Pinklon was a shell of the fighter he was.

 

You're only talking about his fight with Trevor Berbick, not Mike Tyson. People can be out of shape for one fight and in shape for another.

The Berbick fight was a totally uninspired effort by Thomas four fights before the Tyson bout. And still Berbick barely won. The fight was decided by one round.

To the point he faced Tyson, Thomas still could've easily been undefeated. He had one loss (to Berbick) and one draw with Coetzee.

Pinklon Thomas wasn't "the shell" of anything against Mike Tyson.

He was 29-1-1, he'd just turned 29 and he was the #1 contender in the WBC. #3 in the WBA. #3 in Ring Magazine.

He was a top contender. And he fought great.

Shell? Don't be overdramatic.

However, the Tyson fight and that knockout, the first of Pinklon's career, took a toll. That KO was brutal.