You take control of Mike's career post Douglas how do you build him back up?

Everything Tysons team did post Douglas was correct.

put him in vs a light punching Tillman to build his confidence. Then put him in vs a hard hitting but technically weak guy in Ruddock to get him into a tough but winnable contest.

I would then have matched him vs a boxer who was technically skilled but not a huge hitter - like a Damiani or a rematch with Tucker

Then have him fight the winner of Holyfield - Bowe

 

I agree. All winnable fights pre prison and post prison he was matched carefully for sure. Even when he fought Holyfield the first time, Evander was coming off a KO loss to Bowe and an awful performance against Bobby Czyz. Most people thought Evander was shot at that point and that Tyson was going to rip right through him and then Michael Moorer right after. They even had Moorer on the undercard beating the brakes off of Botha to sell the Tyson vs Moorer unification. Moorer had the IBF belt and it would have made Tyson a two time unified champ.

As we all found out, Evander still had some lead in his pencil and it was Tyson that more on the downside.

 

I agree with this. When you get past Lennox, Bowe, Holy, Moorer, Foreman and consider Tyson wasn't a champ for most of this period Golota, Botha, Seldon, Bruno, Savarese and Nielsen are about as good a group of 6 opponents you could have Tyson fight.

The main thing one could do would be to try to keep Tyson out of prison. But beyond those lost years and fighting Holyfield and Lennox earlier(he likely still loses but he'd have a better shot) there's not really anything you can do. Tyson didn't fight Bowe, Foreman and Moorer but actually making those fights wouldn't be doing Tyson any favors because he'd probably lose all of them. Bowe and Foreman are awful stylistic matchups for Tyson and Moorer is as tough a fight as Lennox or Holy.

 

Post prison? Avoid Holyfield and he might have a long run.

Hey, who knows?

 

Either TIllman or Stewart … not both.

Beat Ruddock’s team to the punch by offering Michael Dokes before he was matched with Razor.

Fight Razor once, not twice, and go after Holy.

 

Offer Rooney a number he couldn't refuse

 

Foreman is a dreadful style match up for Tyson. But in the 90s? Not sure . George really lacked any speed at this point. Forwman might still win but I wouldn’t count Tyson out.

As far as Bowe is concerned, Bowe is too unproven vs punchers. Bowe never fought Lewis, Ruddock, Morrison or any super notable puncher. Bowe liked to go toe to toe. And Bowe didn’t exactly have the fleet feet and fast hands like Douglas. I think Bowe is too unproven vs punchers and too easy to hit to beat Tyson.

Pre Prison Tyson has a great shot vs pre Steward Lewis. Post prison? No real chance

 

I feel like you're suggesting we should want him to be introduced to exclusively Asian beauty pageants. Which is cruel. But probably a genre of some kind of anime.

 

A fight with Moorer is more winnable than Holy . I think Tyson steam rollers him to early defeat. With the IBF title mikes some lucrative money. If he avoid s Holy he should be ok

 

He would have no contact with Desiree Washington. I would control his "love life".
After that comes the boxing career. I would try and manage to "bring Mike back to 1988".
Mike is only 23 years old, and far from past prime. He would never become "Iron"; I would put him back in "Kid Dynamite" mode.
Kid Dynamite Vs. Smokin' head movement | Boxing News 24 Fan Forum

 

Fighting Ruddock over 19 rounds can't have done him much good.

 

He ate some huge uppercuts from Razor. That guy could crack for sure.

 

I rewatched those fights a while back.Some of those punches Tyson took, no way did that guy have a dodgy chin.

 

Everything was fine except for the second fight against Razor, but generally, I don't think it hurt him all that much. In fact, it was a good test before the Holyfield fight—certainly better than the Holyfield-Foreman bout was for Evander prior to facing Tyson. Mike was on the right track, even though he probably wasn't quite as good as he had been in 1987.