Mike Tyson in 1986

How many rounds did Tyson fight in that year? He was probably knocking guys out in 1-2 rounds so that he fought the equivalent of 2 full fights.

 

Tyson came along at just the right time,Fergy. Larry Holmes was fading and the other alpha champs were beating each other in,what were quite often,lacklustre fights. Mike was exciting to watch. Shame he blew up the way he did.

 

Yes it was a good time for heavyweight boxing mate, wasn't it.
Poor Larry had the misfortune to meet him at damn near his best to.

 

Nobody had transcended the sport quite like Tyson did in 1986 since the glory days of Muhammad Ali.

Not even Sugar Ray Leonard (who was a legit transcendent world superstar himself) blew up to the level of Tyson and certainly nobody since has transcended boxing like Tyson did.

He was the most famous sportsperson on the planet. Probably Michael Jordan became the heir to Tyson as the world’s most famous sportsperson immediately after that (while Tyson was doing time) but Tyson is still the benchmark for famous living boxers. Not even Floyd has that much fame when compared to Tyson.

In my lifetime, there hasn’t been an active fighter with the aura that Tyson had back then - it was phenomenal.

 

What do you think is the deal with him? Given is taxing style and physical shortcomings, how long could he have potentially stayed unbeaten? Given how comprehensively Douglas beat him, I struggle to any other result once they inevitably faced each other. Styles do make fights, Douglas may have just had his number?

 

The old phenomena of remembering where you were when a major event occurred.

I was travelling to my brother in laws place back in 86. He wasn’t really a boxing fan.

When I arrived he couldn’t stop raving about Tyson’s 2 round destruction of Berbick which he’d watched earlier on that same day. That was the first I’d heard of the result.

Due to being in transit I didn’t get to see the fight live. I saw the replay later that day and then understood what he was waxing lyrical about.

Mike was a seriously scary mo fo back in the day. I could understand fighters starting to lose feeling in their legs even before first bell. Tyson literally looked like he wanted to kill them - and he appeared to have the tools to do it.

 

Nothing like a little bit of research before sprouting off is there

 

Great run wasn’t it. He looked so damn good that we sometimes forgot his age. So much so that when Tillis matched him almost punch for punch we were shocked! It was like WTF just happened.
In hindsight it was a young buck being told “You ain’t there yet cowboy,” by a much more experienced campaigner who on the day gave the youngster a bit of a reality check.

Mike took that reality check…and the win…and carried on his relentless charge all the way to the title. Great year for the young man.

 

It's one of the most impressive runs ever for a Heavyweight prospect, the fact he fought James Tillis in a tough 10 rounder then fought Mitch Green just 3 weeks later in another 10 rounder is quite astonishing. And that really puts the Heavyweights of today into perspective doesn't it ? who have only had a handful of fights in the past few years.

And it's not like Tyson was fighting total cans either.......

Mitch Green
James Tillis
Trevor Berbick
Marvis Frazier
Jesse Ferguson
Jose Ribalta
Alfonso Ratliff = Was Lineal Cruiserweight champion 2 fights before he fought Tyson.

 

Too bad fighters today don't understand that being active draws the attention of the public, even if you don't fight the best opponents.

 

We often go into deep analysis on fighters for better or worse - no dramas, that’s what we do.

Unfortunately, that can sometimes be misread to be a crusade or exercising a prejudiced, hidden agenda against certain fighters.

My from end, that’s not true at all. Any discussion on Mike launches from the platform that he is/was an ATG - we then go on to differentiate, separate and try to put our past masters in order of quality. We’re already working with fighters who existed in rarefied air.

Threads that simply celebrate certain great fighters without the usual and obligatory, deep dive analysis are refreshing.

That Mike is still so very relevant today without being a try hard, says a lot of about his well earned status in the boxing community.

 

Boxing was boring to me back then since I was a wee lad who was more interested in watching Hulk Hogan vs Rowdy Roddy Piper. But Mike Tyson came along and it was like watching a ROCKY movie. Just pure excitement with boat loads of entertainment!!

 

After a childhood of watching Larry the jab plod through one contender after another, and the adjacent alphabet boys flop against eachother like elephant seals, it was like a welcome hurricane when Tyson blazed on to the scene!