Lewis-Tyson (IS ON! - 1996)

The main thing that reduces the quality of Tyson—Holyfield 1 for Holyfield’s resume is that Holyfield was juiced out of his eyeballs. That version of Tyson was still better than anyone beaten by a lot of heavyweight champions.

 

Isn't that what they say before every fight? after the fight he said that he made a lot of mistakes. Either way, the fact is that
1. was the clear favorite
2. He never fought longer than 3 rounds for 5 years and they were one-sided fights, I had no test
3. He was scheduled to fight M Moorer in April 1997, just as he was scheduled to fight Holyfield in 1990 before Douglas. This is not the behavior of someone who takes a fight seriously. And I'll mention it again - Holyfield would destroy every Tyson in prison, at any time... He would also do it in a rematch if it weren't for Mike's vulgar behavior!! Regardless of the fact that I agree that he was in much better shape, as Overhand writes - he was finished, primarily mentally. A year later he officially started taking zoloft, in fact he should never fight again.

 

I'd take post Mercer Lewis over any version of Tyson.

 

Lewis KO3 Tyson

 

not bad, in 2002 it took him 8 rounds... Even Morrison, who had a much weaker chin, lasted longer.

 

He said it in the Chasing Tyson documentary that ESPN made about Evander Holyfield. This was in 2015

 

It’s worth noting that Tyson gave up a belt rather than fight Lewis, his mandatory. Lewis took step-aside money one time and said no more and Tyson refused to give him his shot.

Lennox wanted it to go to purse bids. Tyson noped the **** out.

 

This. Lewis by decision in 1996 is my pick. Even first half of the fight with some scary moments for Lewis, dominant performance by Lennox in the second half or the fight. People tend to forget though that Lennox never stopped anyone past round 8, so I don't think he would stop 5-rounds version of Tyson late in the fight if he needed 8 rounds to stop 1-round version of Mike. Lewis by 116-112, probably 117-111 type of decision

 

a business decision, we have explained it many times. Just like it was a business decision for Lewis to give the belt to Byrd and Ruiz, I don't know what to call giving the belt to Vitali, but let's call it a marriage because that was also explained
We've actually talked about it before and I think we agreed on what I consider Saintpat's big success.

Tyson's advantage is that he fought Lewis in 2002, under much worse conditions.

Tyson Fury offered Wilder money to withdraw from the third fight. Wilder didn't take the money, he went to win against the guy who destroyed him in the previous fight.

Ali, Holmes, Spinks, Foreman, Bowe, Lewis renounced their belts. Tyson is the only HW champion to have defended his unified title so many times. Lewis never defended three titles, Tyson did it six times.

 

I didn't watch it. I've always heard, for example, in an interview for Playboy in 1998, that he claimed that he was in much better shape in the second fight and if it weren't for Holyfield's fouls that enraged him, he would have knocked him out, but I think that's just talk. but if you believe him, then ok. In my opinion, he was mentally in a mess, as evidenced by the osychiatric treatment he started in 1997 or 1998, although he certainly should have started it much earlier. But as I wrote, if you believe him, ok.

 

Agreed.
Tyson stated several times (when he had nothing to gain from lying) that he was in better shape the second time (as it's evidenced by his slightly lesser weight, better movement and improved reflexes).
But if you say so, you are labeled a " Tyson fanboy " lol.
Also, a quote from Tyson :
« I prepared extremely hard for the second fight. I realized in the first and second rounds of that fight I was blacking out and feeling dizzy like I was in the first fight. After that first fight, I said I am going to get in the best shape of my life. And then it was happening again. I started freaking out. ».