Tyson getting revange for Ali?

I heard that story well before Alis passing. That is not a brand new story. Might not be from the 80s but it was around quite awhile.

 

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Early 2010s I think? Might have been after Berbick died? I was a kid but I remember the whole Holmes/Berbick/Tyson thing. Think it was on some ESPN classic doc maybe? Something like that.

The crazy thing is people tell you "the internet lasts forever" but half the internet from 2010 is gone forever. Its the biggest problem no one talks about.

 

Story existed well before Ali's passing.

Not even saying it's true.

I've had my doubts tbh.

 

Why would you doubt something that Tyson has confirmed a bunch of times?

 

Whether true or not, what followed was what we could only objectively describe as, “the greatest moment in sports.”

 

Absolutely yes.

 

Tyson (much like Marvin Hagler and many more) was one of those guys who would find ways to get himself pumped up and motivated — create a reason to hate the opponent because it made him work harder and come in with bad intentions.

I don’t think it amounts to much. I don’t think had they never fought that Tyson was walking around muttering ‘I gotta get my hands on that Larry Holmes, I need to pay him back for Ali.’ Once the fight was signed, he gave himself a reason to make it personal because he operated better that way.

Another example, he supposedly gave Tyrell Biggs payback because Biggs ‘took his spot’ at the Olympics. He dreamed up a scenario that he wanted to fight at super heavyweight but “they” made him fight at heavyweight (201 pounds) instead because they had hand-picked Biggs.

This ignores the fact that Tyson had competed in exactly two national tournaments to that point (as an open division fighter, not youth division, which doesn’t lead to the Olympics), the National Golden Gloves two years in a row, and had competed in both in the 201-pound heavyweight division. Winning the NGG is how he punched a ticket to the Olympic Trials.

The ways to get to the Olympic Trials were:

Win the National Golden Gloves, or …

Win the USA Boxing national championship, or …

Be the all-service champion (winner among the Army, Navy and Marines tournament), or …

Win either the Eastern Trials or Western Trials (those are like last-chance qualifying events, one on each side of the country).

I don’t know if in 1984 they also brought in the runners-up from the NGG and USA tournaments for preliminary qualifying bouts. They do now.

But I do know that you don’t just show up and say ‘I want to try out for the Olympics in this weight class.’ You have to qualify to compete in the trials. And whatever division you qualify in, that’s the division you can make the Olympics for. You cannot, for instance, quality at light middleweight and then declare you want to fight at middleweight in the Trials.

You COULD, if you didn’t make it in one class, go to the Eastern or Western trials and try in another weight class — move up or down — and make it that way. But you can’t win the NGG at one weight and show up at the Trials and compete in another.

So whoever “they” were must have been the ones who wrote the rules, and it was the same rules before and after Mike Tyson’s amateur career. If Mike was unable to get past Henry Tillman at 201, he’d have had a helluva time winning at super heavyweight.

Bottom line, while Tyson was masterfully crafted to win a pro world championship during his amateur days, Cus didn’t prepare him to be an Olympic champ — didn’t fight in enough national tournaments, didn’t get international experience (until he fought in some bigger events after the Trials but before he turned pro), didn’t get the kind of experience that helps in competing at the top level to refine his game. Most of Mike’s amateur experience was in ‘smokers’ that were unofficial type amateur fights at out-of-the-way locations. Cus wanted to keep Mike out of the limelight … maybe in part to keep other top amateurs from scouting him but probably more importantly to keep top pro managers and promoters from stealing him away by keeping him a secret.

So Biggs or the U.S. national boxing structure did nothing to keep Mike from claiming an Olympic spot at super heavy … if anyone did, it was Cus for keeping him in the 201 division. But that didn’t stop Mike from using it as if he was avenging a great wrong when he met Biggs in the pro ranks.

 

It was probably more about impressing Ali than hurting Holmes.

 

Great info, but i heard mike say in an interview that while he was becoming a boxer, his life purpose was to beat Larry Holmes (his words)

 

Holmes was the champion, gotta beat the champ to be the champ.

 

Kevin McBride:

"This is for Larry Holmes."

Not really.